If I meet the True Death
by merick
Summary: Sookie and Eric have a little talk in Sam's office. Inspired by a teaser for the August 22nd episode. And by request the story will continue with the development of their relationship and how they deal with the other Sups in their lives.
1. Chapter 1

So the preview for this week's True Blood had a teaser of Eric saying the line below to Sookie, and it got me thinking: if I'd been writing the script, how would I have played out that scene. So, here it is. Maybe someone else can try now too?

Merick.

"If I meet the True Death without having once kissed you, that would be my greatest regret." Eric Northman

We were standing in Sam's office. I'd closed the door behind us as we'd come in. Eric's appearance at the bar, while not wholly unusual, was unexpected, and as people were generally not so well disposed to Vampires right at that moment; after Russell Edgington's on-air stunt of the night before, I hurried him to the back. Out of sight, out of mind I hoped. Sam seemed to agree.

Another thing I had not expected was Eric coming to tell me he was leaving in pursuit of Russell; I didn't know that I rated so highly in his life that he would feel the need to keep me in the loop about such things. That was until he made his little announcement. I swear, I must have looked like a big 'ol squirrel in a headlight staring back at him as those blue eyes bored right into my soul.

"Umm." Was about the best I could manage, but he was waiting for some kind of answer so I swallowed hard, straightened up my shoulders as best I could, leaned my head back so I see him properly and followed my initial outburst with a resounding, "Eric?" I sounded so pitiful. "I just don't think…" And then I ran out of words again.

He looked at me, with the oddest expression on his face, something so un-typically Eric-like. His eyes were wide and he wore a little half smile of resignation. Before I met Russell, Eric was the most powerful Vampire I'd ever met. He fairly oozed self-confidence and self-assurance; when it wasn't tempered by a blood lust that scared the life out of me. This was completely the opposite of that, and that frightened me more I think.

"I understand." His words were almost whispers, and he actually looked a little sad as he turned away from me and headed towards the one little window in the place.

I'm not sure when I first realized that Eric could fly, sometimes it was hard to tell, what with Vampires being able to run so quickly, like Bill and Jessica could. I was certain of it by the end of that night I can tell you.

In that moment, when he was standing there, hesitating, I had what they call in Church, an Epiphany. That's when suddenly you have a really important revelation about something; in Church it's a spiritual thing, that night, not so much. It kind of dawned on me that Eric was going off to try to kill Russell mostly predicated on a need for revenge for the murder of his family, but also, just a little part because of me, and because Russell wanted me for some reason. Eric knew that. And as much as he needed the vengeance, I like to think that my safety was also a part of his decision. And right then I saw Eric Northman in a very different light. Suddenly he wasn't just Bill's nemesis, or a vulgar, power hungry self-centered individual. Right then there was something I appreciated; that he was risking his life to try to save mine. Not that it was the first time, but it was the first time that I sensed he was doing it for no other reason than he didn't want me to die. There was nothing in it for him.

"Eric? Wait?" I could hardly believe I'd spoken out loud, and that wasn't the first of my actions that evening that I couldn't believe. He turned back to me, that sad little smile still on his face, unchanged. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Goodness, his voice was just like velvet.

"You know, if anyone asks about it, I'll have to deny it?" He cocked his head at me and raised one eyebrow in a confused gesture.

"I mean, if I let you kiss me." The corners of his mouth turned upwards just a little, but his eyes remained that endless frosty blue. It didn't look like he'd given himself permission to believe that he'd heard me correctly.

I figured, that with everything he was doing for me, the least I could do was give him that, if he thought it was so important. I smiled at him, and nodded, and only then did he come away from the window.

"Just lock the door okay?" I expected him to flash across the room in that vampire blur, but he didn't. He walked to the door at a human pace, turned the bolt, and then walked to me at the same pace. I think he did it for my benefit, and it did make me feel more comfortable.

Standing in front of me, he looked down at my face; him being a good eighteen inches taller than me. He brushed two fingers along my cheek and brought them to rest under my chin, and then he tipped it up and brought his own face to mine. I closed my eyes at that point, maybe because the whole thing was overwhelming, maybe just cause it seemed like the right thing to do. I felt him press his lips against mine, so gently, and then part them, pulling a breath from my mouth. I know he didn't have to breathe, none of them did, but it was another wholly human gesture he gave me, and then he pulled away from me, and let his fingers drop to his side.

I opened my eyes to see his smile again; this time more serene. And not to give myself any unnecessary credit or anything, but he seemed really happy just then. Satisfied, but not in a smug sort of way. It was just innocence, like a child, and it was undeniably charming. He didn't say anything else but walked back to the window, preparing to leave, but I knew I just couldn't let him go, not like that.

"Your cologne smells really nice." It was an odd thing to say, but in those brief moments, pressed into him I had smelled it. He stopped frozen in his tracks; I could see his shoulders tense. I didn't know what I had said wrong, and I tried to qualify my words.

"It reminds me of the ocean. Gran took Jason and I there a few times. I'll always remember it, clean and pure smelling." The look of utter horror in his face shocked me, and I wished desperately that I could read his mind just then, because there was something going on behind those blue eyes, something that looked like it even scared him. Everything after that happened so fast. In a human instant he was back in front of me, arms wrapped around me, lifting me onto Sam's desk, bending back my head and forcing his mouth onto mine. My chest was pressed against his, and I could feel him shudder as his tongue dove into my mouth even as his hands held me tightly. Funnily enough I wasn't scared just then. In fact, if I'm going to be honest here, a part of me did my own trembling, and I let my own tongue dance with his for a few good, passionate moments as I ground my body against his. Only when I absolutely needed to breathe did I pull away from him.

Still wrapped in his arms I looked up at him, and both eyes were rimmed with the blood tears. As I whispered his name, one spilled over and I wiped it away with my thumb. We just kind of held each other for a moment then. I didn't understand what had happened, but I didn't mind that it had happened either.

"You know that was two kisses then, don't you Eric?" I know it was a dumb thing to say, but the tension was getting really hard to bear. He laughed just a little laugh then, and stepped away from me for the final time.

"If I return, I will give it back to you Sookie."

"Please come back Eric."

And then he was gone, and I got the most horrible feeling in my gut that that was the last time I was ever going to see Eric Northman. I looked at the bloodstain on my thumb, and put it in my mouth to draw it off my skin, it tingled. Then, after straightening my clothes I unlocked the door and went back to work, and began waiting for him to come back.


	2. Chapter 2

Well I wasn't going to go on, but I'm just peeved enough at Alan Ball right now to continue my story, my way. So we'll be departing from the current storyline on TV, but I will reference back as appropriate. I hope you enjoy my vision.

Deception, that was the theme for the first he week he was gone. I tried to make sense of everything that had happened in that brief encounter in Sam's office; well that, and everything that had happened with Bill. My dreams were telling me not to trust him; even though many of them were still the byproduct of Eric's blood. He/my dream said it was my survival instinct kicking in, my intuition trying to warn me. I'd never really had to use intuition before the vampires came into my life; being a telepath I just knew what the people around me were thinking of, and if they were thinking about nasty things, especially about me. I had at least been sure of most everyone's motivation, and now, well now it was all just gut churning internal debate.

Eric, while not the nicest person to me, had always been honest with me, even if the honesty was brutal. Bill had not been. Eric had used me for his own purposes in finding Godric, but in his defense, I had volunteered, though I hadn't been entirely briefed on the whole situation. But it seemed that Bill had done the same thing, and I had been completely in the dark over that one. Our whole relationship had begun on a lie. He'd been sent to Bon Temps to find me, by the Queen, who wanted me for her own purposes. He claimed not to have known what those were, but he'd still been in possession of a dossier on my family, so I had to believe that he had some idea.

What had happened after that, the relationship that had developed, with me unawares just felt tainted when I sat down and really thought about it, and I just didn't know if I could get past that betrayal. At least Eric had been honest from the beginning; he didn't like me, and saw me as a human bug, only useful when it suited his purposes to employ me through threats or intimidation. And that final kiss, well, I didn't know what to make of that, but it still felt more honest than what I was feeling about Bill just then. That kiss had been pure emotion, not tainted with lust or even passion, it was deeper than that and it was desperate, and it was the only time in my life I had ever felt anything like that.

Honestly though, what was really hard for me to get past was the fact that Bill had cheated on me. I could forgive him nearly killing me in the back of Alcide's van. He was out of his mind with hunger, I presented him with blood, which I now knew was pretty much irresistible to vampires; I couldn't blame him for doing what he did. After all, he saved my life, giving me his blood, blood that had given me the strength to fight Debbie Pelt, and survive. I had pretty much forgiven Bill all of that as soon as I stopped screaming in the hospital room. But he had slept with Lorena, and he had told me about it, over the phone, in the cruelest terms he could have ever used. I know he was in an impossible situation, and I understand his need to distance himself from me; but he didn't have to sleep with her, maker or not. She had released him, that act had been his choice, and that was what had hurt the most.

And there was the dichotomy I was fighting against. Bill had cheated on me, had I done the same? Did I have any right to blame him? I had had thoughts about Alcide, he was big and warm, and desperately handsome. So many times I'd found myself within a breath of kissing him, and I'd dreamed of spending the night with him, but I hadn't actually done it. But was I just as guilty of infidelity? And then there was Eric, at best I'd let him kiss me, at worst I'd kissed him back, and the ache in my gut told me that there was something deeper there, that I wasn't quite ready to bring to the surface and deal with. Had it been innocent? I'd only just given him the vampire equivalent of a last meal. Okay, maybe that analogy doesn't work. But it had been like the final request of a dying man, because he certainly believed that he wasn't coming back. As I thought about it there was a better than decent chance that he wasn't. Russell was three thousand years old, Eric only one. Could giving him that wish have been a bad thing? And why was I comparing them in the way I was? Was I building a case for Eric over Bill, to justify my actions, or to make me feel less guilty?

I hated thinking about all of that. I threw myself into work, making up for missing so many shifts, taking as many doubles as I could, to force my mind into the mundane. I stayed late for Arlene, worked as many nights as I could, because Bill wasn't coming into Merlotte's right then. After his house had been vandalized he and Jessica kept a low profile. If fact, with my blessing, he had been spending a great deal more time with Jessica that first week. She needed him, and he needed to spend time teaching her, and being the right kind of mentor and maker for her so that she could defend herself. He did come by a few nights, late, but I had been so exhausted I'd fallen asleep on the couch watching television with him, only to wake, alone, in my own bed in the morning. He knew that I was suffering, though he maybe didn't appreciate the extent of the cause, and he didn't try to initiate any kind of intimacy with me, not even to take a kiss. He was afraid to take my blood, even if I couldn't read his mind I knew he was still worried that I didn't trust that he loved me for myself and not just my 'delectable fairy blood'. The distance between us was growing and it made me feel sick to my stomach.

On Sunday I went to church to try to make myself feel better. I listened to the sermon, and shook hands with everyone and waited for that spiritual warmth to fill me so that I could have one day of peace. Then I went home and cooked a full Sunday dinner; Gran would have been proud, and invited Jason, Hoyt and Tara over for dinner. Tara actually came, which said to me that she was in the process of forgiving Jason and I for everything that had happened with Eggs. Jason left me a pile of movies to watch, for which I thanked him. I didn't feel a whole lot better when they left, but it had been a few good hours of distraction. I went to bed and cried.

Week two Pam came to visit me. I was settling in to one of Jason's movies and had just brought a bowl of popcorn with butter and salt to the living room when I heard the knock at my door. Since there was only a hole out there when I sent out my mind to check it out, I knew it was a vampire, I just didn't know which one, though my heart leapt at the thought that it might be Eric, finally returned.

"Hello?" I called out to the still bolted door.

"Sookie?" Came back my answer, and I recognized Pam's voice. I opened the door, an expectant fear in the action.

"What's happened to him?"


	3. Chapter 3

You keep writing such lovely things and my counter is going crazy. How can I not write more for you all?

Thank you, do drop a line if you are enjoying things.

Ciao,

Merick

Chapter 3

She looked terrible, it was hard not to notice, she usually took such pride in her appearance; it wasn't unusual to see her dressed in designers whose names I could barely pronounce; when she wasn't dressed up for work at Fangtasia, as the stereotypical Hollywood vampire. Even when she was, her makeup was flawless, but tonight it looked as though she had barely put any thought into it at all. Upon my words of greeting I watched her shoulders slump, and I swear, if she hadn't had such impeccable control over her emotions she might have started crying.

"Come in, please." I didn't know what her appearance meant, but I feared the worst. She nodded at me, steeling her lips together.

She looked around my garishly homey living room, a cobbling together of my things and Gran's. Memories on memories that made me feel comfortable. Even though there was still a great deal of cleaning to do after Maryanne's invasion, the slow progress was beginning to reclaim it. To give her credit, Pam didn't sneer, but I don't think she was actually looking around at my sad possessions, I think she was throwing her own mind out looking for Eric through their bond. The sad look on her face meant that she hadn't found any trace of him, because, of course he wasn't there, and hadn't been.

"I had just hoped." She said, looking at me, "that he might have returned here, to go to ground out of some pitifully noble sense of needing to protect you."

"He hasn't."

"You've had no word from him?"

"Nothing at all. And obviously you haven't either."

"No." Her sigh, while unnecessary, was deep.

"Did you want to sit down? I still have some True Blood around."

Unbelievably she accepted both my offer of company, and of the drink, it was perhaps the longest conversation we had ever had, though it wasn't an easy one.

"Wouldn't you know if he had died Pam?" I hadn't wanted to say the word, but I thought she might appreciate the directness. "Don't you have a link to your maker?"

"Yes. I do, but I feel nothing now, just an emptiness where there used to be his warmth." It seemed odd to hear anything about a vampire described in terms of warmth.

"But what does that mean?"

"I don't know Sookie. It could just mean that he is very far away, or that he is deliberately keeping his thoughts to himself."

"He can do that?"

"The old ones can."

"It's still possible then that he's just tracking Russell isn't it? I mean we haven't heard anything about Russell either these last few weeks."

"I suppose it is possible."

"I cannot believe that you wouldn't know if something had happened to him Pam. He loves you."

"And for just that reason he would not want me to find him if he was hurt, he wouldn't want me risking myself. I just hate the hole his absence has left in my heart." She cast her eyes down to Gran's old worn rug, which I hadn't yet gotten around to replacing. I understood what kind of feeling that sort of hole brought with it; in two ways. I knew the disquiet of not being able to sense someone, like a vampire, having spent most of my life privy to the thoughts, even just the 'being' of people around me. But vampires were always holes, and that was what had made Bill so attractive to me in the first place, that he was quiet. But there was another feeling; similar to the one Pam was feeling. There was an emptiness, as much as I didn't want to admit it to myself, at his not being there, somewhere in my world. And when I thought about it, that hollowness made me sick.

"Perhaps I should go." I realized then that my silence had been prolonged with my introspection.

"You don't have to." As strange as it was, I appreciated her company, it was a way to keep Eric's memory in my home, such as it was. "I was just going to watch a movie. You're welcome to stay."

"What kind of movie is it?"

"Kung Fu?" I answered hesitantly, "Jason brought it over, it's his."

"I would have thought you would have been more of a romantic film aficionado."

"I think that is the last type of movie either of us needs right now."

"Perhaps you are right." And she even smiled at me.

We watched the movie together, not quite as girlfriends, but as two comrades, forced together by the common emotion of loneliness. We even laughed a bit, especially when Pam commented on how much better a vampire could have made most of the moves because of their speed. I commented that perhaps Eric should go into the movie business when he returned. Just talking about the future, and him being in it made us both feel just a little better.

When she stood to go she embraced me, this time with a tear in her eye.

"He loves you, just as you love him Pam. He will not leave you." I said it to make her feel better.

"You love him as well, don't you Sookie?"

"Not as you do Pam." I couldn't actually believe I'd said the words, or at least that their implications had come from my heart.

"No, not as I do." She agreed, and then she kissed me, and stepped out into the night. I watched her drive off, back to Shreveport. There was motion in my woods, also watching her leaving, and Jessica stepped out to wave at me quietly. Bill must have sent her to watch over me; or perhaps he was out there too, just staying hidden. I held a hand out to her, to wave back. Perhaps she and Bill were just having lessons again. I doubted it, and I appreciated that they were watching out for me. She faded back into the woods, I might have imagined the sad smile on her face, I certainly couldn't have seen it from my porch. I knew she was suffering too, from everything that was going on, or not going on between Bill and I.

By the third week it was panic, and sadness. I began to believe that Eric really must be dead and all the ramifications of that possibility hit me full on. For as much as Bill and Jessica had watched over me for werewolves, neither of them could have defeated Russell, they were both too young. If Eric truly was gone, then my one possible savior was also gone, and it would only be a matter of time before Russell, or his minions came to claim me. I knew I could keep Russell out of my home, but not the wolves and I kept my shotgun, loaded, beside me in every room I went in to.

I considered calling Alcide, to see if I could stay with him for awhile, but I had put him in danger too often, and he was also probably a target of Debbie's wrath, and having one more person to look out for would only dull his senses. Besides, I did not know what might happen between us, I'd been drawn to him before, and the last thing my heart needed was the complication of lust for Alcide while I was mourning Eric, or whatever construct of him that I had spent three weeks creating.

That construct was fast becoming the only picture of Eric that I held in my heart and when I was quiet it took over and made me miserable, and scared. Everyone around me knew I was suffering, hard as I tried to hide it. To take my mind off of things, I borrowed a power washer from Sam, and started cleaning off the outside of my house. I had the thing turned up a little high in my zeal to get rid of the mud and detritus that the Maenad had left behind, so much so that I took off some of the paint. Having done that I decided to repaint the whole thing, which meant a trip into Shreveport to the hardware store to get paint and brushes. Jessica and Hoyt came by, after dark of course, and they both helped me finish the painting by moonlight, which really is the oddest way to paint, but Jess had a huge smile on her face the whole time, probably because Hoyt was there. It did do my heart good to see the two of them together, and in love. Her speed got the job finished in no time. If Eric had been there he could have painted the second story for me without a ladder. That thought brought tears to my eyes, which I wiped away as quickly as I felt their sting.

I didn't know why I had built this version of Eric in my mind; it just made it so much harder to think that he was gone, because he'd quickly become my everything. When I stopped and was rational about it, I knew I was being ridiculous. The only nice thing Eric had ever done for me was to kiss me, the way he had, with that genuine desire. I had built a fantasy based on the one look in his eyes. But it had to mean something. He had asked, in his own way for that kiss, not for my blood, not for sex, for something so innocent as a kiss as his final wish. Was that enough to rebuild the monster I had met only months earlier?

Then I remembered Godric. Godric had seen something in Eric, and having seen them together I remembered the way Eric had acted, begging to stay and die with his maker, so great was his love for him. I had promised Eric I would remain with Godric till the end, and I had promised Godric I would look after Eric. What had Godric known? Had he known the truth of Eric's heart; that he did care for me? Eric had demonstrated on that rooftop that he had the capacity to love unconditionally. Could that love extend to me? I scrubbed at the walls so hard I nearly took off the wallpaper trying to keep from bursting into tears. I picked up the shotgun and went out into the woods so I could cry properly for him. He wasn't coming back, and I was alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Jessica rode home with me from work most nights, when we had shifts together. There was a new kid at work, Sam's brother Tommy. It didn't take me long to suss out that he was a shifter just like his brother, not that I said anything. He didn't do a very good job of hiding his thoughts from me, and some of the things he was thinking about Jessica and I were downright nasty. Obviously no one had told him what I was, I like to think that he might have censored himself a bit more, but perhaps not. I tried to make nice, because he was Sam's brother, and because, from what I could see and hear, he hadn't had much of life up until then. There was also a new server, so Arlene was a lot happier. Holly seemed very nice, and not that I tried to get into her head, but she was harder to read than most, and I liked that, I didn't have to concentrate so hard when I was around her. We got on fine.

My life settled into a dull little routine, much like it had been before the Vampires came to Bon Temps. Get up, putter around the house, sunbathe, get ready for work, work, come home, and sleep. It wasn't so bad really. And one thing I had to admit, not that I was accepting that Eric was dead, well truly dead, but whatever it was that had happened to him, nothing had tried to hurt, kidnap or kill me in nearly four weeks. That was practically a record. I hadn't had to miss a day of work, Arlene was beginning to forgive me for all the ones I had missed, the bruises were all healed, and I finally stopped carrying the shotgun to the bathroom with me.

Alcide called me around the middle of the week, I'm sure Bill put him up to it, I assumed that he'd been getting regular reports on me from Jessica. Alcide told me that things in Jackson were getting tense. When I asked what that meant he told me that the crime rate had gone up, especially drug related crimes. The police were attributing it all to the gangs but Alcide knew better. He knew it was Russell's pack, but he didn't know why. Together we hypothesized for a while. I knew that Russell had abandoned his mansion, so there was a fairly decent chance that he'd left his pack behind as well. Now they were wandering about aimlessly, without a real leader, getting into trouble because they didn't know what else to do. Of course, they were also likely not getting their regular V fix, because Russell was gone, which was probably making them crazier. Alcide asked if I wanted to come out to Jackson to see him, or maybe meet for dinner, but the atmosphere didn't sound particularly safe, even if the company was tempting. I told him that I was really busy just then, working on the house and all, and then he offered to come out and help me. I thought about that for a few minutes, because he was good company, but in the end, I turned him down, telling him I was still just in the planning stages, though I promised to call him if I needed any supplies, because he could get them for me at his contractor's rate and save me some money, he'd even deliver. He was so sincere and so nice it was hard to put down the phone, but I knew I couldn't get together with him till I'd straightened out my vampire issues, and I had to be fair to him, much as I did fantasize about those warm arms wrapped around me.

As I think I'd said before, Bill hadn't been coming into Merlotte's, I had seen him when I dropped Jessica off at home a few times, but he hadn't come out of the house to see me. It had been a bit easier on me that way, not having to deal with him, or my feelings, and that was why I was kind of surprised when he showed up on Thursday night to bring Jessica home. Not that he'd come into the bar, but he'd been waiting by my car when Jess and I turned out the lights and had locked up behind ourselves.

"Hey Bill?" Jessica seemed curious and worried when she saw him standing there. He smiled that screwed up little, unsure, nervous smile of his at both of us.

"Sookie?" He addressed me first, "Might I be able to come by your house after taking Jessica home tonight? To talk?"

My peaceful little world got a bit tenser then, but I nodded.

"I'll see you soon then." He and Jessica disappeared into the woods, to run home I guessed. I didn't know quite what soon meant, but it turned out to be long enough for me to drive home at my human pace, get inside, out of my uniform and into sweatpants and a tee shirt for bed, and almost curl myself up on the couch. His knock at the door was so quiet I might have missed it, had I not been in the front room. I knew it must be him by that familiar Vampire void, and so I rose from the couch, crossed to the door and opened it.

"Good evening Sookie." He was the gentleman caller standing at my doorstop again, just as he had done so many times.

"Won't you please come in Bill?" I stood back to let him pass. My greeting had really been just a formality, I had never rescinded his invitation to enter my home; just in case.

"Thank you." He stepped past me, uneasily, sweeping the house to see if anyone else was present. Of course no one was.

"How have you been?" His words seemed so painful and I could tell he was holding back so much. I hadn't known why he'd wanted to come see me, but during the drive home I'd thought about some possible reasons.

"Are you coming to tell me you're leaving too?" I was blunt, but I was tired, and scared, and steeling my emotions for another hit.

"What? No. Of course not." His voice, at first shocked at my assumption, softened, "Just the opposite."

I sat quietly on the couch and listened as he spoke, feeling my all ready shattered heart being ripped into even tinier pieces.

"You've been so sad these last few weeks. Ever since we returned to Bon Temps. I tried coming to see you at first, but that didn't seem to help, and then I tried staying away, but you only seemed to get more despondent. Now I feel I must speak with you about what is at the heart of this matter."

I shivered, afraid of what he was going to say next, he noticed and I saw him start to reach for my hand, but then stop.

"I know your misery is all my fault. I have tried so hard over these last weeks to be your friend, and to give you what you need to believe that my love for you is based on you, and not your blood."

It seemed so ironic to me that he said his loved was based on me, when the real basis for our love had been a procurement order from his Queen. I tried to fight back the tears I felt stinging behind my eyes.

"Will you ever forgive me Sookie?"

A tear rolled down my cheek, I knew I needed to be honest with him, to save my own sanity.

"I already have forgiven you Bill." It sounded good to say it out loud because I knew it was true. But I also knew that it wasn't the way he wanted to hear the answer. He let me talk.

"Bill, you're my best friend. You have been with me through some of the most miserable times of my life. If it hadn't been for you I don't know how I would have survived losing Gran, having Jason accused of murder, of having Maryanne destroy my home. Even the little sad things, I so loved being able to share them with you, you made me feel less alone. You know more about me than most anyone, even Tara, even me." That last comment made him bristle, I mostly hadn't meant it to hurt him, but it was the truth.

"You've been my only lover, and being with you made me feel alive and beautiful, and normal, and loved. But," And there I had to stop and sob, because all those beautiful memories from before, when I'd been naïve to the truth of how things were, they'd sustained me, pushed me forward, and now they were gone.

"You don't love me anymore." It wasn't really a question in that beautiful deep southern accent that usually made me feel so special. It was a statement of resignation.

"No Bill, I don't. Not like you need me to."

I collapsed into his chest then, feeling his arms encircle me, holding me tightly against all the misery that was wracking my body in all too human sobs.

"Oh Sookie." He whispered. Then he kissed my head and let me cry.

Bill vowed to me that night, that he would spent the rest of my life trying to earn back my trust, and that only made me cry harder, partly because he was so genuine that I wanted to believe him, and because I was so hurt at losing what I thought I had. And partly because of the fact that he was measuring his penance with my lifetime, something finite, and that meant to me, right then, that he would most likely go on to love again, possibly feeling absolved of his guilt, and I just didn't ever see myself as being happy again.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

It was after two, Saturday night; well, now Sunday morning and I'd gotten home from closing up Merlotte's, late, which was okay really. I was tired, but looking forward to two days off, as much as I could look forward to anything at that point. I was just setting the kettle to boil, to make up some tea before going to bed when I heard, or thought I heard, steps on my porch, or, more specifically, a thud on my porch. I waited to see if the noise would be repeated, but it wasn't, instead, there was a knock on my door. Another void. Bill, I thought to myself, obviously still checking up on me to make sure I got home safely. It didn't make me angry that he was still looking out for me, really, supernatural protectors were fine, I just wasn't in the mood to see him right then, I still felt really empty inside when it came to him.

"Bill? I'm fine," I started to say as I opened the door, but it wasn't the dark haired southerner I had expected to be there. Instead, someone else practically fell into my arms.

"Eric!" I half dragged him across my threshold, half let gravity do the work. Apparently it was enough to get past the taboo against entering a house uninvited. I barely got him onto the floor of the front room without dropping him, and then I raced back to kick the door shut and bolt it. I didn't know what had happened, or if someone was pursuing him, but I was going to put some kind of barrier between it and us, no matter how pitiful.

I had never seen him like that before, though I recognized some of the injuries. His hands and face were blackened, and his right wrist was raw and bloody. There was earth coating his clothing and through his hair. He'd gone to ground at some point, but he hadn't managed to heal from the burns I saw on him, and his wrist, that had to have been from silver.

"Eric?" I repeated his name as I knelt down beside him, I felt nearly frantic at seeing him.

"Sookie?" His voice was so low, though I recognized it the moment he spoke.

"Eric, yes, it's Sookie. You're in my house." Ashen lips curled up just a little.

"I'm sorry it took me so long."

"So long? So long to what?"

"To come back to you."

"Don't talk Eric, don't use up your strength. Let me call Pam, she'll know how to help you." His left hand shot up, faster than I would have imagined he could have managed in his state.

"No." He grabbed my wrist and held me fast.

"But,"

"By now she must believe I am truly dead, she cannot see me like this Sookie. I cannot give her hope that I still live, just to die in front of her."

"But she can help." I pleaded with him.

"No." That voice was stronger. "It has taken me four days to make my way back to you. Now I need you to listen to me, and do as I ask." The authority was still there in his tone, he spoke each word as if it was its own sentence, emphasizing the seriousness of them, though I didn't take it as cruel.

Four days? He had said four days of going to the ground every sunrise, and still he had not healed? How badly must he have been hurt? How far away must he have been? Just the thought made me tremble. These injuries had to have been at the hands of Russell Edgington, and it made me angry.

"Russell?" I became worried then, worried that Russell would still be pursuing him, and while I knew he couldn't enter my house, there was nothing to stop him burning it down around the both of us. But Eric allayed my fears.

"He's dead Sookie, truly dead, he will not harm anyone else, Human or Vampire, ever again. But the cost of his death has likely been my own. I just didn't want to die out there. Not without anyone knowing."

"Die? Eric, no! You are not going to die, not here, not now." If I had been frantic before, now I was bordering on hysterical.

"Dearest Sookie, there is nothing you can do." His eyes opened, and the clear blue jewels that had been there before were now clouded, as if someone had poured milk over them. The lower lids began to rim with red, and I knew I was beginning to cry as well. I squeezed myself underneath his shoulders, to allow his head to rest down into my lap. I knew what I needed to do, but I was terrified. But looking down on him, remembering the fantasy I had built, I screwed up my courage and asked him the question.

"Do you have enough strength to bite me, and take my blood?" I didn't know if he could even understand my words, punctuated as they were by sobs.

"No Sookie, I will not take it." His eyes closed again.

"You have to." I didn't think that I could cut my own arm again and offer it to him; the memories of Bill, and the slide into death were too fresh. Eric had to do it for me; fear had me paralyzed.

"You nearly died," he tried to say but I cut him off.

"And you will if you don't drink, damn it!" We would have made a horrible sight had anyone chanced upon us. My cheeks streaked with red from my salt tears, his blackened face, grotesquely colored with blood tears that looked like open wounds. I wrapped my arm around his neck and pressed it against his mouth, feeling the dryness of his skin against mine, it was so different than the soft lips that had taken mine the last time we had been together. "Take it Eric, please. I don't want to lose you."

Perhaps it was the plea, perhaps the proximity of the blood, the fairy blood, but whatever it was, two hands finally took my arm, I heard the 'snick' of his fangs descending, and he bit. Mouth curled around the crook of my elbow he began to suckle me, I could feel his tongue coaxing the blood from the two small puncture wounds. I held my arm fast against his mouth and stroked his hair with the other, willing him to drink and heal, and letting the wave of arousal wash over me at his sounds and actions.

He drank for only a few minutes it seemed, I felt no ill effects. I found quite the opposite actually, I felt more powerful, somehow knowing that I was giving him something supernatural in its own right.

"Is that enough Eric?" I cooed at him, like he was child.

"It will be." The cloudy eyes tried to focus on me, I don't know if he managed it. Then I watched him do something I'd never seen before. His fangs still extended he raked them across his bottom lip, cutting it. The blood pooled for just a second before he bent back to my arm, and kissed the small wound he had left. I watched the punctures close, faster than the tear on his lip. There was still blood there when I bent my face to his and kissed him as tenderly as I could, afraid of hurting him further.

"Thank you Eric, for everything you've ever done for me." It felt almost like I was saying goodbye, but I needed him to hear it. "You kept me safe when you didn't have to, you gave me help when I asked, even if it wasn't always in the ways I demanded. You and I are so strong willed Eric." I felt his consciousness slipping. "Please fight." I finally whispered, not sure if he had even heard me, and then he was just, for lack of a better word, dead weight in my lap.

Thing with Vampires is, when they are perfectly still, as when they sleep sometimes, it's really hard to tell if they are alive or dead. Okay, I know, you're saying, Sookie, they're always dead, but I mean truly dead. I didn't know what happened when Vampires met the True Death in a 'natural' way. I'd seen how they exploded when staked, and how they burned to ash when exposed to the sun. But I didn't know what happened when they just passed. Eric didn't breathe, there was no heartbeat to check, but every so often, when I touched his face he would twitch, just a little, and I could see, or imagined I could see, some of the wounds receding and the blackened skin becoming pale again.

And then it hit me, sitting there on the floor, blond Nordic vampire, looking a bit like burnt toast in my lap; I just felt weary. It was very late, and I was in danger of falling asleep right where I lay, wrapped around Eric's body. I didn't dare take the chance. He was already badly burned, and on the floor of my living room, the sun would pour in the gauzy curtains offering no refuge in only a few more hours. I knew I had to move him to a place of safety. And I knew it wasn't going to be easy.

I hefted his body onto the largest throw rug on the floor, and dragged him to the spare bedroom in little heaves. Months ago I had cleaned out the closet and Bill and I had made a hiding spot under its floor, just in case. I removed all the bins I had piled over it and opened the trap door. But I didn't want to just roll Eric into it like a sack of potatoes in the cold cellar, part of me knew I just had to stay close to him, and watch over him as long as I could, I just got the strange sense that he would do the same if our roles were reversed. I pulled all the curtains shut; they were blackout ones, not light tight, but closer than any other room in the house, then I went and got my alarm clock from my bedroom, set it for an hour before sunrise, and put it down on the floor beside me. I pulled pillows and blankets off of the bed, and saw to Eric's comfort first, then made a little nest for myself beside him, and curled up on the floor, arm over his body and let myself rest for a few hours.

He didn't stir when the alarm went off, and feeling the fog of being awakened after not nearly enough sleep I could hardly focus enough to sort my mind out over what I had to do next. It took me a few minutes to come to my senses, and when my eyes had focused enough I could see that Eric did actually look a little bit better. The welt on his wrist was nearly gone, and his lips had regained some of their color, perhaps offset by the pale skin showing through what now looked more like a deep tan on his face instead of a burn. I felt more confident that he might actually survive whatever it was that he had been through.

I laid a pillow down into the cubby space, thought about a blanket over the earth, but then decided against it. I just got the impression that he should be in contact with the ground, that somehow that made a difference. With strength born on God knows what, I half dragged, half pushed his legs in first, kind of bent them at the knees, and then pushed his upper half in, holding onto his neck so I wouldn't jar his head against anything. For all the healing he couldn't have woken up just enough to help me? But I kept at it. And after ten minutes of side-to-side movements, and shoves that became less gentle, I had him resting safely. I closed the door over top of him, and laid a blanket over that, just in case. Then I closed the closet door and felt onto the guest bed, dragging a blanket and pillow with me. It was far more comfortable than the floor, that much I noticed right off.

"Good night Eric." I whispered, and fell back to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

I read over this one a whole bunch of times, hoping to get it just right. I hope it conveys the images I had in my brain.

Merick

Chapter Six

I slept in, way later than I usually did, helped out by the fact that the curtains were drawn, and the room was quite dark. I'd had a lot of dreams, the dreams that Eric's blood generally inspired, even though I'd only had a small taste, from his lips, but it sure built a wonderful fantasy. Waking up was a little disappointing because my bed was empty, and looking over at the closet doors I had to wonder if Eric was really anything like the man I'd been dreaming of, or realistically, if he'd even survived the night. Some of the burns on him looked like they must have been down the very bone, especially on the exposed flesh of his right hand, below the horrible red welt on his wrist. I didn't know what I was going to do if he died in that little cubbyhole. How could I ask Bill or Jessica, or even Pam to come and retrieve his body; if there was one left to retrieve? There'd already been so much death in my little house, I just hoped that somewhere along the way I'd earned enough brownie points to ask God to spare me any more.

I slipped out from underneath the blanket, and on my bare feet I padded over to the closet. I didn't dare open the doors for absolute fear of any stray beam of sunlight penetrating within. I just kind of put my hands down on the floor, as close as I could get to where he was hiding beneath, and I started to talk to him; and I didn't even feel like a total fool doing it.

"Eric? It's Sookie. I don't know if you can hear me." Why is it that people always say that? It doesn't make a lot of sense really, if you think about it. Either people hear you, or they don't, stating the obvious is kind of a waste of time.

"You're safe, in my house. I'll be here all day, waiting for you to wake up. I'm just kind of hungry right now, so I'm going to go to the kitchen, and then have a quick shower, but I'll be back right after that, and I'll stay here as long as you need me." It just seemed like something I should do, like he might do it for me. Like he might have already done for me, when I was recovering from the maenad attack. "Just rest, and get better, okay Eric?"

It took me half an hour to warm up and eat some leftovers and have a shower. I was still pulling my hair into a ponytail as I walked back into the guest room. I felt badly for leaving him there, on his own, as irrational as it probably was. I pulled blankets and pillows back onto the floor, and propped myself up against the wall by the closet and just started talking out loud again.

"I wonder what you were like as a boy Eric. I wonder if you were impetuous, or impish? I wonder if you had your way given to you, or if you just took it? I wonder what made you into the man you are now? You must have been strong; it's likely what drew Godric to you, what draws so many people to you. But I wonder why you chose to begin to hide yourself behind the stone mask? I wonder how you must look when you laugh. I wonder how beautiful your smile is. I've only seen a glimpse of it and it has me so enchanted. I wonder how many people have loved you; as your parents surely loved you, as Godric loved you, as Pam loves you." I stopped there for a moment, holding my hand flat on the floor again, willing some kind of response from him.

"I wonder how many you have loved?"

"You never met my Gran did you? I don't know what she would have made of you. Probably would have invited you right in, that was just her way. She was old fashioned that way Gran was. She saw the good in everyone. I wonder what she would have seen in you?"

I had to smile, thinking about Gran, and how she had reacted when I first told her about Bill. She didn't warn me off him, or spout any religious rhetoric, she told me what she always did; to be careful, and to enjoy the adventure.

"I hope she'd be proud of me." I said out loud, not to anyone in particular. "Even if I have been a bit of a fool." I brushed my hand over the floor, "Please Eric, I don't want you to die." I might still have been fooling myself, but I could have sworn that just for an instant the floor underneath my hand felt cold, I even shivered as I recall. I dreamed that maybe he had heard me, and that he had brought his hand up to try to touch mine.

Just so you know, I didn't spend all afternoon talking to the vampire sleeping in my closet. I spent a lot of time just staring into space, and I know I lay down for a while and even dozed off, my head filled with images that both excited and frightened me. When I woke the sun was just starting its golden descent, and I was suddenly filled with a terrible sense of dread. I didn't know if I should open the closet doors, and pull back the blanket and trap door, or if I should wait until he emerged himself, if he emerged. I didn't even know if I should wait in the room, on the bed, on the floor, or leave; my gut twisted into knots as I watched the ambient light fade to blackness. To try to ease my anxiety I switched on the bedside light, so at least I wasn't sitting in the dark waiting for who knew what.

I imagined that I heard all manner of noises for about five minutes until I could wait no longer. It was fully dark by then and I thought it would be safe to do something. I eased open the folding closet doors, which made a low squeak as they ran along their tracks. Then I pulled the blanket off the trap door and took a deep breath as I grasped the little inset handle and pulled it upwards. It took very little force to move it, because Eric's hand was pushing it from the other side. I laid it open and watched him emerge slowly.

He looked so beautiful to me. His hands were still healing, but they looked no worse than a sunburn by then, and they were strong, strong enough to lift him from the improvised crypt. I breathed out a huge sigh of relief as he lifted his bent head, and the blond hair fell away from his face to reveal the one that had been haunting me for weeks.

"Oh thank God Eric, you're okay." His eyes focused on me, renewed in their jeweled splendor, even in the half-light of the bedroom.

"Sookie." He whispered, "I had thought this was perhaps all a dream."

"Not a dream. Here let me help you." I held out my hands as I rocked back from my hunched position, and helped guide him free. He sat heavily on the floor beside me; pulling his legs up from the earth, and then curling them just under his body. His movements were still slowed, and looked uncomfortable, so I knew my original hopes that he would be fully healed had not yet been realized.

"Are you hungry?" It still took him a moment to focus on me. "I have True Blood in the kitchen, I can get you one, or two, whatever you need." My voice sounded anxious. I made to get up, but he laid his hand over mine.

"Don't leave me just yet."

The hand, carefully laid over mine clasped it more securely. I looked from it, to his face, trying to discern what he was thinking.

"What can I do to help you Eric?"

"Have you told anyone else that I am here?" I shook my head. "Thank you Sookie." His words were so slow, perhaps not unlike his normal diction, but just then it sounded labored. "Have you been here all this time?"

"Yes." I was hesitant, afraid of what he might think of me for being so foolish. But again he thanked me. The way his eyes looked so deeply into mine made me uncomfortable just then, because he didn't say another word. I stood, on my shaky feet. "Let me get you the True Blood." And I disappeared to the kitchen. The way he had been looking at me, it wasn't that I thought he was thinking about biting me, it was something different, like the look in his eyes when he had held my face back at Merlotte's. He was seeing something else in me, or feeling it in himself, and the innocent wonder, and ancient wisdom dichotomy left me wobbly. I opened two bottles, warmed them for a few moments in the microwave, and returned to the bedroom, all the while listening to hear footsteps, to know if he had followed me. He hadn't.

When I returned with the bottles; no glass that time, I only have two hands, he was standing hesitantly, leaning on the brass footboard of the guest bed. He now looked a little green. Bottles still in my hands, I crossed to him quickly, and slipped my head and shoulders under his left arm, willing him to lean on me before he fell. I pressed one bottle into his right hand.

"Please drink Eric." He did as I asked, and I exchanged the empty one for the full when he finished it. Only then did he start to look steadier; at least enough to make his way around the rails to sit on the side of the rumpled bed. I sat beside him, putting the empties on the floor.

"I'm afraid for you Eric. Will you let me call Pam, please, she'll know what to do."

"No. Don't call anyone. I will be all right, I can feel my energy returning even now." And indeed, he did look better after the blood. "It is a difficult thing, recovering after such a terrible burn." He looked at his hands, "yes, I am healing." Then he looked back at me. My insides did a little flip-flop. His hands, which he had obviously assured himself, would not repulse me, brushed down the sides of my face, cupping it gently, and without closing his eyes, or even blinking he drew me to him and kissed me.

"I promised you I would return that when I came back." His fingertips were cold, but that wasn't why I shivered.

"I have been many days in the earth Sookie, might I beg yet another favor from you?" I nodded mutely. "Might I use your washroom to shower and clean myself properly?"

"Of course, it's just across the hall, there's towels in the cupboard." Hostess voice took over, which was good, because Sookie voice was just babbling right about then.

He nodded, rose, now seemingly quite certain on his feet, and crossed to the bathroom. He shut the door, but did not latch it, it was an old lock, and unless you gave it a bit of a shove it didn't quite bolt, so it swung open a couple of inches after a moment. I sat still on the bed, marveling in the kiss, and the tenderness, and just his nearness to me, the beginning of so many fantasies assaulting my mind. I heard the water come on, and the shower curtain rings peel along the stainless rod like bells, as he must have stepped into the spray.

Trembling, I stood and went to the door; I pushed it open just a little wider. I could see his clothes were folded on the floor; and I thought for a moment that I should perhaps take them and put them in the washer for him, so he would have something clean to wear. But I didn't. I just stood and watched his form behind the opaque curtain as he turned in the water; his head cast down, letting the water run over his neck and shoulders.

"Ah hell Sookie." Some part of my subconscious, or fantasy brain kicked me in the butt. "You may never have this chance again. And I think it's worth taking." Lost as I was in roiling emotions of the past month I hesitated for only a moment before stepping onto the tile floor, slipping off my tee shirt, shorts and undergarments, leaving them in a pile. And with held breath and shaky fingers, I pulled back the curtains and stepped into the claw foot bathtub to stand just behind him.

(Chapter Seven will be moving to the 'M' level, so don't lose me okay guys?)


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

He must have heard me, his hearing was exquisite, even with the water running over his head. He knew I was there but he didn't turn and it gave me the chance to watch him, and then reach out for him. I let my fingertips trace the muscles on his back, even as my eyes took in every band, and tendon, and every scar. I felt his shoulders relax as my hands brushed down his skin, to come to rest on his hips as I pulled myself against him cautiously. Only then did he raise his head, rivulets of water dripping down his hair, which was growing out slowly from the short cut Pam had given him. He was a god there in my arms as I wrapped them around his front, to hold them, flat palms against his abdomen. I had never seen a man so beautiful, with a body that was so hard, and yet so yielding to me. His skin was warm from the water, and smooth, even over the scars, which I assumed must have been from his human life. I kissed his back and felt him start to slowly turn in my embrace. I tipped my head up to meet his eyes, and they glistened in the moisture of the small room. There was no cruelty there, no anger, no stone, they were the softened jewels that had haunted my dreams and I only hoped that my own could come close to matching his in emotion. I couldn't help it, looking up at him, I parted my lips, begging wordlessly for a kiss, which he forced on my willing body, grinding his mouth against mine, meeting my ferocity as if we two were pulling life itself from each others souls. Mouths and tongues searched for purchase as hands and arms encircled and painted strokes that drew our bodies together. There was no hiding my desperation for him then, he must have been able to feel the heart in my chest pounding for him, and feel the breath in my lungs, the gasps with each surfacing for air. His own needs were plain to me, pressed against my belly, our hips dancing. It was every dream, and it was glorious, and I could not bear taking my mouth from his skin as I kissed him over and over. Finally he pulled me to his chest, holding me there in an embrace, one hand wrapped around my waist, another around my head, as if hiding me from everything else within the circle of his arms. He kissed the top of my head, and rested his cheek there for a few moments.

Somehow, in the tangle of arms he managed to turn off the water, and a hand drew back the curtain. Strong arms lifted me by my waist out of the tub and set me down on the mat, and in a moment he was wrapping me in a white towel. I watched as he retrieved one for himself, trembling at the sight of his body, shimmering with water droplets, and I saw him as the Viking prince then, not knowing where that image had come from. The muscles on his chest matched the strength of the ones I had pawed in the shower, and he cut a 'v' from his shoulders down to his waist, with two chiseled channels running from there, inwards to his arousal. Even as he covered himself in a towel he was the most enchanting thing I had ever seen. His face was serene again, like the statue of a saint, it seemed, awash in bliss, and he reached out to pull the elastic from my hair, letting it fall in a damp curtain over my shoulders.

"Let me brush it for you?" He asked. I don't know how I managed to keep myself upright at his request, because I felt faint even at the thought of it. I nodded, and held out my hand, to lead him to my bedroom, where I had Gran's old vanity table set up with my brushes. He followed me, moving like a ballet dancer with precise steps and perfect tone. I could not take my eyes off him, and thanked God that Gran's vanity had three mirrors, so that even when I sat on the low stool in front of it, that I could watch him; when I was able to keep my eyes open, and when I was not overwhelmed by the ecstasy of his touch.

He took up one of my brushes, and carefully began to run it through my hair, and to my utter amazement he began to sing. It was quiet, almost as if it was an unconscious gesture on his part. I did not understand the language but I kept silent, and closed my eyes to simply enjoy the cadence. It was not a melody so much as a spoken story it seemed, one such as I imagined might have been told by a jongleur in a medieval court. Apparently I had retained a few things from school history classes, or was it English lit? It didn't matter. It was beautiful.

Only when he fell silent, did I dare ask him about it.

"My father would sing it to my mother." He told me, "sometimes he would brush her hair in the evenings, and I would sit at her feet and listen to the tale. Before the servants took me to my own bed, that was." I watched a wistful smile cross his face at the memory.

"What was the story about?"

"The tale of a hero, as so many of them were, who bested monsters and the gods to retrieve his love from death."

"It's beautiful." I told him, and I noticed my own voice had become a little hushed and reverent.

"Thank you."

He finished brushing my hair out, and bent his head to me as I watched him in the mirrors. He pushed the drying strands out of his way, as he kissed the back of my neck. I tensed, expecting the sting of his fangs, but felt nothing but the velvet of his lips. He had noticed my hesitance.

"Don't be afraid of me. I will never take your blood without your permission." He practically purred it in my ear. I felt my insides quiver even more than they had been doing previously. Then he kissed me again.

What the hell was I doing? Probably a question I should have asked myself before I climbed into the shower with him. A lost look crossed my face, reflected three times for him to see. He dropped to his knees beside me, which still put him at eye level with me; damn he was tall and gorgeous, still only half wrapped in a white terry cloth bath towel.

"Is this not what you want Sookie?" He took my hand, and turning it palm side up, ran the tip of his tongue the length of it. Oh God, I felt like I could hardly think straight.

"A month ago." I started to say, as I looked into the ice blue, Nordic depths of his eyes. I stammered as he smiled at me. I began again.

"A month ago if anyone had asked me to describe you Eric, I would have painted you as a self-serving narcissist. Only concerned with other people to the extent that they could further your ambitions."

"Yes?" he didn't deny it, or offer an objection.

"Then I spent four weeks without you, and I found this terrible emptiness in me, thinking that you would never return."

"I am sorry for that Sookie, for the way I had to leave you. But I had to go, and I couldn't risk exposing myself if I was to succeed in destroying Russell. You understand that, don't you?" He stroked my hair, and unconsciously I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch. "I never meant to hurt you."

"I know." I really didn't, I don't think I was understanding much of anything right then, but I wanted to believe it so desperately, and I wanted to continue listening to his voice, and feeling his touch, but I couldn't leave it be, such a big part of me had been hurt by Bill, and as much as I wanted to leave all that behind, the ache tainted me and I was afraid, and so I continued to speak.

"In that four weeks Eric I built up this fantasy about you." I could hardly believe I was saying it out loud to anyone, let alone him. It was like exposing my chest to his blade, daring him to cut me.

"You dreamed of me?" His face said he was intrigued, even flattered. I had to let the statement hang.

"All predicated on that kiss Eric. And now I am scared. Was it all too fast or to naïve?"

"Sookie. Perhaps you think that for someone who has lived a thousand years, that four weeks might seem inconsequential, in fact, it is quite the opposite." His serene smile was back, like a Buddha importing the wisdom of the ages to me.

"You learn," he continued, "after living for this long that every moment is precious, perhaps because you see how the passage of time changes things, or erodes them from memory. You embrace every moment because you do not know when you will lose something precious to you, and because you live to see the ramifications of your choices and actions. You make every moment count."

"You are so different than I ever imagined Eric, before." I wanted to say before you went away, before you kissed me, but it came out awkwardly.

"I hope so. While I cannot deny that at the first it may have seemed as if I treated you terribly, it was not without cause."

All the while he had been speaking to me he had continued to touch me, stroking my hair, or my face, down my neck and shoulders. He might not have been able to glamour me, but his actions had a similar effect.

"How could I not try to send you away upon first seeing you?" I was confused, but I listened. "I knew from my first glimpse of you that you were special."

"The fairy blood." I knew my voice had sounded dejected just then. I was so tired of that genetic curse and the way it had drawn the vampires to me, maybe even the weres as well, what did I know.

"Not that, I had not tasted your blood then, I did not know any of that then. You were intriguing, a mystery. You were a human who could not be glamoured, and one with a burgeoning self-confidence, and so beautiful and innocent. But I couldn't tell you any of that then."

"Why not?" I was so naïve.

"You arrived in my bar, in the company of a vampire who worked for my queen. He resided in my area, and as such, might have been subject to me, but for his attachment to Sophie-Ann. I could not simply announce that I wished to have you as mine Sookie. You made it clear that you were with Bill. I doubted that you knew the full truth of his intentions, but you were quite insistent as I recall." He grinned at me. I remembered back to how rude I had been to him, the terrible things I had said to him, and I was ashamed of myself.

"Besides all that, my queen had an interest in you, and I could not interfere. So I ordered you from my sight because it pained me to see you. Not that it stopped you from returning I might add. You may not have understood, or appreciated the way I treated you, but trust me that everything I did was ultimately to protect you. I granted your requests in my own fashion, which infuriated you, and I made overt advances to you, and I tricked you into taking my blood all so that you might come to think more openly about your situation. I hoped that even a passing thought of me might give you pause."

"It did," But perhaps not soon enough.

"You came to the truth in a hard way Sookie, one I wish I could have spared you from."

"But I wouldn't have believed you then. I had to see for myself."

"And now you have, and you have a choice to make."


	8. Chapter 8

Thanks again for all the awesome reviews everyone, I just love going to my inbox to see what you've liked, what you want to see, and all your suggestions. What was going to be a one-shot has become something with teeth that I am so excited to come back to and develop every day.

Thank you for your enthusiasm, you make me feel great.

Merick

Chapter Eight

Until he had drawn me into his arms in the shower, and held me crushed against his chest, I had known exactly what I wanted from him. I wanted his body and his mouth and the nether regions that made my guts turn to Jell-O, I had wanted him in my bed, and I had wanted him to bring me to my peak over and over again until the sun rose. And then he began to talk, and then he told me the truth, and then I wanted something so much deeper that it scared the hell out of me. Every fantasy had come to an end with an orgasm, they had been sex and nothing else, and now with his words, he had made it about so much more. It was the choice of a leap of faith I had to make right then, because he needed an answer, and so did I.

I stood, and he followed suit, and I took a deep breath, which he did not have to do, and then I reached out for the towel around his waist, even as I let mine fall.

"You are my choice Eric Northman, I want you." Maybe the words were more serious than they needed to be, but he understood them how I meant them and the smile that lit his face was one I will never forget. His perfect white teeth against the red of his lips, his pale skin making the jewels even more stunning. He swept me up in his arms, twirled around to my bed, and laid me down on the half turned quilt, climbing over me with no hesitation. He forced his mouth onto mine with the same desperation of the shower, of the kiss in Sam's office, and it stole my breath. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled him down onto me, feeling the length of his chest on my skin. Its coolness made me shiver, but its strength made me want to arch my body into him. His moan was so quiet, but so exciting as I ground my hips against him, brushing against his arousal with a thirst he could not misunderstand.

He brought his mouth down on the skin of my neck, trailing his tongue down the hollows. His hands came up to grasp my breasts and knead them while he kissed, and pulled on them till I stood in response, all the while moaning with my own passions. Only when I could stand the promise of his skin no further did he slide his hand down between my legs, he needn't have bothered, I was beyond ready, I was desperate for him. The cry I let out as he pushed himself inside me would have betrayed me to any man or supernatural walking in my woods that night, but fortunately there were none of either, or at least none who misunderstood and rushed to my rescue. That would have been embarrassing. And my cries only continued as he rocked against me, pulling back and forcing himself within over and over again. I thought that I might die from everything I was feeling, and with my inability to form any kind of rational thought beyond, Oh my God.

I knew my climax was building, I felt it begin, deep in my gut, beyond an ache, it was like a tidal wave. It had begun as a ripple, like those caused by a stone thrown into a still pond, but instead of loosing strength as it spread out in its concentric circles it gained it, like it was bewitched. The first shivers reached my fingertips as my body began to beg his for more.

"Oh God Eric, please!"

"Watch me." The words were a desperate command, not without the power I had come to expect from his voice, but also colored with his passions, and his own approaching climax. I stared at his face, as he threw his head back, fangs exposed and drove himself against me as hard as he ever had. The growl escaping from his lips was feral and deep and glorious and I gave myself to him with my own, higher pitched version.

"Take me now Eric." I cried out to him, and with an animal smile he thrust his fangs into the soft skin between my breast and upper arm even as I felt him still grinding his flesh against mine, drawing out the spasms of his peak.

It stung for only a moment, and then all I felt was the passion of his tongue again, as he had done on my arm, coaxing the blood from the wound into his hungry mouth, and taking the time to tease my electrified skin at the same time. He allowed his body to sink down onto mine softly as he fed, always mindful of my smaller frame, never crushing me. I closed my eyes and let my head sink back into the pillow, awash in the glow of my orgasm and his, and the peaceful feeling of his feeding.

We lay side by side, unwilling to part from each other. We had tangled our feet together under the blanket he had drawn up over our legs, and he continued to stroke my skin with his fingertips even as I leaned in for kiss after kiss. His smile never faded, even though I could feel my own strength ebbing with the lateness of the hour. I felt his hand reach down my side to my hip and then brush around between my legs again cautiously. I started with the feeling, and bit my lower lip.

"I've hurt you haven't I?" His voice was so deeply sensual in its whisper.

"No, I'm alright Eric." His fingers lifted my chin to look into his eyes, because he knew I was lying to him.

"Sookie?"

"It's okay Eric, it will pass, and I don't regret a moment."

"Let me help you." He opened his mouth just a little wider and extended his fangs. Bringing his two fingers to the tips of the points I watched as he impaled each and pulled them back to expose small drops of blood on each. I thought perhaps he would offer them to me, to take into my mouth, to drink and heal, but that was not what he did. At first he brushed them along the small puncture wounds on my breast, and I watched as they closed up. He hardly needed to have bothered with them they were so tiny. He had a great skill in many things, my Viking lover, and subtle feeding was certainly one. He explained to me once, later, that the young ones left the torn and rent flesh, but that with age came the skill to take what was needed and leave only the smallest of marks. It was what he did next that surprised me.

Fingertips still bloody he slid them between my legs again, gently touching me. At first small circles around me and then a careful penetration, stroking me deeply, letting his thumb join in to rub over the most sensitive spots. The ache that had been left by his lovemaking began to recede, replaced by an ache of a different sort, and even when the pain was gone he continued, robbing me of my control for a second time that night, and bringing me to a second throbbing orgasm as he watched me, a grin on his face that betrayed his extreme pleasure at reducing me to a senseless mess.

"I can give you that until you become accustomed to me." He breathed into my ear, before I was even able to recover myself.

"Oh God."

"Why don't you sleep for awhile my lover?"

"I don't want to. I don't want to wake up without you here. I don't want this to have all been a dream." I knew my hands were shaky as I brushed them over his chest.

"I promise you my lover, that I will stay by your side as long as I can, and that I will wake you before I go to my daytime rest. And you will be assured that none of this was a dream."

I nodded at him, and let my eyes close, I was beyond fighting any longer, and I was blissfully exhausted. I felt his lips take mine once more and then a whispered prayer before I slept.

"I hope that my smile was everything you dreamed it was."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

I didn't dream, or at least I didn't remember any dreams. Perhaps it was because every fantasy I'd had for the last four weeks had suddenly come true and my body knew it as well as my mind, or perhaps it was because I'd hardly had any sleep before I felt an insistent mouth pressed on mine. Either or, it was all right.

The lips that woke me were soft, pulling my own into his mouth, forcing me to consciousness slowly and not totally unwilling. But it was when I felt his body brush along mine, and then slide himself within me that I could not help but wake fully and moan out loud, a sound he quelled with his mouth yet again.

He was so gentle, rocking against me, like a dream. I kept my eyes closed, letting every stroke build the exquisite pleasure in me. If it had been a dream I wouldn't have cared a wit, I was so self-centered just then, allowing myself to simply enjoy everything he was giving me. It took a glorious forever until the waves overcame me, and he met me at my peak with his own lovely moan and arms wrapped around me, holding me pressed to his chest as if he might never let me go. It was the perfect moment, and only then did I open my eyes to greet him.

"Is it morning already?"

"We have a little time yet my lover." The name made me smile, as did the kisses he continued to plant on my neck and my chest.

"I have another request for you Sookie."

"Mmmm, another shower, that sounds nice." I lazily grinned at him and squirmed a bit in his grasp.

"I would make love to you in the shower at every sunset if you would let me my lover. But this is a different request." His words were a little more serious than seductive so I gave him more of my attention. Not that I was worried or anything right then.

"Yes?"

"Might I use your telephone? I should phone Pam and tell her that I have survived, and I have lost my cell somewhere." He nipped at my neck without waiting for an answer.

"It's in the kitchen."

He slipped his legs out of the bed, sitting up so that only part of him was still covered by the quilt, I don't know if yummy even began to describe how he looked. He held out a hand to me.

"Come with me?"

"Eric?"

"I'm not ready to be without you yet."

"But I'm not wearing anything."

He stood, "neither am I."

Whoo boy.

He cuddled me into his chest, throwing an arm over my shoulders as he picked up my old phone and dialed Pam's number. I didn't hear her greeting as she answered, but I heard her response to his voice.

"Pam, it's Eric."

"Oh God." The exclamation was genuine, and laced with relief, and possibly a choked sob. Quickly regaining control of herself, no doubt, her voice returned to its normal tone, one that I could barely hear, not that I was trying to listen in. He kissed my head as she admonished him, all the while pretending to listen to her.

"Yes, I'm all right Pam."

"Yes, he has met the true death."

"And I have the proof for Nan."

"It took a number of nights to make my way back to Louisiana. I was gravely injured."

"I'm here at Sookie's, it's safe."

"No, I don't need you to come out here now, there isn't time before sunrise." He grinned at me, he'd planned the timing of this call quite precisely it seemed.

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow evening, come out to Sookie's place." 'Is that okay?', he mouthed at me, I nodded. I'd yet to tell him that Pam had been out once already. Not that we were friends now, but we'd come to an understanding I thought.

"And Pam, can you go by the house first and get me a change of clothes. And have one of the humans get me a new cell phone."

"No I don't much care which one, as long as I can make calls on it."

"Yes, texting would be fine."

"Yes, I'll see you soon."

He placed the receiver back in its cradle.

"She was pleased to hear from me." He smirked. I simply shook my head. That was a shade of the old Eric, the playful side, which hadn't really annoyed me all that much when I thought about it.

We crawled back into my bed and wrapped ourselves in the quilts, I laid my head down on his chest as he slouched against the headboard, one arm casually tucked behind his head, the other wrapped around me. It was obvious that he was deep in thought.

"Will everything be all right when Pam comes?" Part of me was afraid right then, that the interlude might now end and things might go back to the way they had always had been between us and I felt a sudden wave of loss. He looked down at me and smiled with the jewel blue eyes. His smile really as was a beautiful as I had imagined it.

"She will know that something has changed between us Sookie. She will likely guess at our new level of intimacy."

"Will she know it because of your bond?"

"No, likely because she knows me very well after a hundred years of living with me. She is a very perceptive woman. That is why she has been such a great help to me in so many things."

"Is this something you would rather that she not know about?" I started to feel a little sick to my stomach just then.

"I have no shame at Pam knowing that we have become lovers. But the question is, do you?"

"No Eric, I don't." I didn't even have to think about that answer, and I proceeded to tell him an abbreviated version of what had transpired during Pam's visit. "I think that she knew then that I had feelings for you, before I even really knew it myself. Perhaps she came here because she also believed the same of you? Do you think she will be angry?"

"Annoyed perhaps, but she knows better than to question my decisions."

"Well I'd hate to be an annoyance." He laughed at me just then, and stroked my back, looking out into the hallway through the door we hadn't bothered to close.

"Oh no, you're never annoying."

"Well I didn't mean to be." I thought back to all those times I'd barged into his office, forcing my presence on him, come hell or high water, as Gran would have said. He continued to laugh, and I knew I wouldn't ever convince him of that.

"There is something you must think about Sookie, beyond Pam's annoyance. She may be the only one we can tell about our relationship for awhile."

Silly me, caught up in the lust and romance, the real world hadn't intruded on the new fantasy I was working up.

"I am not trying to say that I am a very important person, but."

"You are a very important vampire Eric, I know that."

"If certain people were to discover that I had taken a human lover they might be more disposed to try to hurt me through that vulnerability." On the subject of annoyance I got a little peeved at that remark, after all so far I'd survived Maenads, Serial Killers, Werewolves and vampires; albeit with some help from my friends. I decided to keep my fury to myself at risk of looking quite foolish.

"For the time being, until I can assure myself that you are properly protected, it might be best to act as if our relationship hasn't changed, at least in public."

"I think I can mange that." I wasn't totally convinced of that, but I had always been a mostly private person, it came from knowing so much about so many other people. Besides, as I thought about it, exactly whom would I tell? Tara? She was so thrilled to find out I'd finally ended things with Bill: she'd never want to see another vampire again. Sam? He was not in a good place right now, certainly not to the point where telling him this would make him feel any better. Bill? Well hell no, that was an easy one. Jessica? She might be the only one who would understand, but her ties to Bill meant he would find out, and as angry as I could be at him at times, I had no desire to hurt him like that; it would only bring me to his level, and forcing Jessica to keep the secret, well that wasn't fair. Jason? I suppose I could tell him, but he was dumb as a bag of hammers some days, and if I didn't want the secret getting out I should have probably left him off the list too. Arlene was in her own little world right then, and while she'd forgiven my conspicuous absences, she had something heavy weighing on her, something I'd managed not to pull out of her head, so why burden her? Maybe it could be easier than I thought.

"It wouldn't be forever Sookie. I just need to sort things out with the Queen." -I'd forgotten about her- "And with the Authority." – I didn't know much about them, just casual mentions I'd heard from Bill and Pam.- "And of course the werewolves."

"Sounds like it might be forever."

"I promise you that it won't be. Though, if you wished to move to Shreveport with me, and leave your job behind it would be much easier to protect you."

"I don't think I'm ready for that just yet Eric."

"I hadn't thought so." He continued to stroke my hair, intermittently kissing my head. "All the same, you will have to be more careful. I will be coming and going from your home more often now, and I may be observed, as stealthy as I am."

"I understand Eric."

"Good. The sun will be up soon and I should go to ground."

That was the part I had always hated with Bill, losing him for so many hours, time we would never be able to share. Part of me wondered if I must be crazy to have taken up with another vampire, but the greater part of me gave the smaller part a little shake to remind myself how peaceful it was; and how mind blowing the sex with Eric was. I smiled absentmindedly.

Seeing Eric safely tucked in for the day I went back to bed for a few more hours of rest wondering if that routine was going to become more normal for me from then on.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Have I ever mentioned how hard it is to get blood out of a rug, for say the third, or was it the forth time? Sadly I had lost track. Gran's old rug in the living room had been there looking worn even before all this vampire, werewolf, Maenad nonsense started. I'd done my best but it was time for it to go, and in the spirit of the new paint, and scrubbed walls I rolled it up, walked it to the end of the driveway for garbage pick-up day and jumped in my car to head for the shops in town.

Because of all the overtime over the last four weeks I actually had a little extra cash, and even though I knew that whatever rug I bought wouldn't be up to the designer tastes of Pam, it would at least be clean; as an afterthought I threw a can of Scotchguard into my cart to treat the thing before anything else got spilt on it. My newfound wealth also translated into some groceries, and a few bottles of Tru Blood, I figured, hoped that Eric would be spending more time at my place, and I wasn't going to be his human supplier all the time. The clerk looked at me oddly when I asked for it; it was behind the counter now a days, but she sold it to me nonetheless, likely grateful to be rid of it. Everything that Russell had done had made folks very nervous again, and really, besides Jessica and sometimes Vampire Bill, Bon Temps was not keen to welcome any new folk onto the fold. Jessica had Sam in her corner so people put up with her; mostly 'cause they didn't want to piss off Sam. There was a bonus to running the only bar in the town, or at least the only bar folks wanted to go into. Besides, if you didn't know her, you wouldn't guess that Jess was a vampire, she was still so young, her skin hadn't turned all white yet, and her habits were all still very human. I'd even caught her pouring herself a cup of coffee once, but it might just have been for the warmth around her hands.

I was out for about three hours, enough time for Eric to have a good rest I figured, without the noise of me bustling around tidying things. I had to wash up where I'd dragged him into the house, he'd been covered with dirt, and he'd tracked that into the bathroom with his clothes. I noticed them still there that morning, neatly folded, and decided that I should probably wash them up for him, even if Pam was bringing him new ones. I emptied the pockets of some coins, a small pouch; and no I didn't look inside it, a folded piece of paper and a handkerchief, who'd have thought? Those things I put down on the floor, in a little basket in the guest room so he'd see them when he got up. I added a robe to the pile, another of my mad money purchases in town. Having given his clothes a thorough going over to ensure there weren't any hidden items that shouldn't be washed; I'd washed enough nails and pencils in Jason's clothes over the years I knew just about everywhere a man could tuck something, I put them in the machine out on the back porch. Since the day was still warm I brought Eric's leather coat out there to air out a bit, and to shake the dirt from it. Ridiculous as it was I held it up to my face to just kind of smell him before I hooked it over the back of a chair. Vampires didn't perspire, at least not the way humans did, to detox. Blood was so pure there wasn't much waste; as I had been led to understand after one night talking with Jessica. They did sometimes need to cool down though, and so they sort of glowed with the moisture. It was attractive, but so much was attractive about them to me. At any rate his jacket had a scent to it, and not just of the earth, but of something older, purer, not must but a natural sort of old growth woodsy thing to it. Not the ocean that time, I guess he hadn't bothered with that cologne recently.

While the laundry was running I sat out in the sun and drank an iced tea. I wasn't thinking about much in particular, which was kind of nice, and out in the warmth I felt almost invincible, as if no bad stuff could happen because the sun was shinning and evil wouldn't dare show its head. After four weeks maybe I was really feeling normal again? I looked over Gran's garden, and thought about putting in some more flowers to replace what had been trampled. I looked at my driveway, which probably needed leveling, and I considered asking Jason if one of his crew from the town could run a grader over it one evening. Hoyt might do it for a peach pie and a jug of tea. I could have him and Jess over and we could talk girl stuff and watch him work. I smiled, that seemed so blissfully normal, or as normal as my life was likely to get.

The laundry buzzer forced me back to reality and as I loaded everything into the dryer I figured I should make myself up some dinner, and have the smell of the food cleared before my company arrived. So I did.

Clothes folded up on one of my dressers, pretty sundress wrapped around myself, hair brushed out long I watched a bit of television as I waited for the sun to go down. I heard the closet door open just after the early news from New Orleans and I took a deep breath and didn't leap to my feet and rush into the spare bedroom, much as a part of me wanted to. I did turn my head towards the hall though, and smile really big as Eric emerged, wrapped in the forest green bathrobe, looking oh so yummy, hair a bit tousled, a peaceful waking up look on his face as if he had really slept. There was no longer any trace of the burns and even the welt on his wrist, just barely visible under his sleeve, looked more like a rug burn than the open wound it had been two nights ago.

He came directly to where I was half laying on the couch and kissed me without a word, wrapping his hands around the sides of my face to tilt my chin to just meet his lips. I just wanted to melt right into him, and I know I kissed him back with an equal force.

"You are so beautiful."

I blushed a little and dropped my gaze, acting demure, but secretly loving being told I was anything but a freak. His hand began to run up my leg, pushing my skirt up just a little. He made me want to just purr, especially as he leaned over my recumbent form to nuzzle at my neck.

"How much time do we have before Pam gets here?"

"I imagine she got on the road about the same time I got up, so at best an hour, at worst half of that." He continued to nip at my neck.

"I don't know if I want her walking in on us."

"Oh I can manage something I'm sure." And he did.

I heard Pam's distinctive footsteps on my porch; not many people in Bon Temps wear Manolo pumps. Eric stood to answer the door, as Pam already had permission to enter. I straightened my dress and the throw pillows on the couch and watched the door, waiting to see what was going to happen.

She held her composure for all of twenty seconds upon seeing Eric's face and the wound on his wrist, collapsing into his arms with an audible sob, it was the most emotion I had ever seen from her. I had half expected it, having seen Eric with Godric; I knew that the bond between a maker and his progeny was as strong as a parent child relationship, perhaps stronger. She looked as distraught as if she had suffered every burn along with him.

Eric stroked her hair for a moment and ushered her in with a few steps backwards. I suddenly felt very awkward intruding on the private moment. Eric got her settled in the wing chair, looking almost wooden after her outburst at seeing him. She cleaned up the blood tears that had threatened her eye makeup while I made myself scarce in the kitchen, warming up the Tru Blood for my vampire guests. I heard Eric's voice seemingly comforting her in a language I did not understand, possibly the same one as the song he had sung earlier. The conversation was brief as the bell from the microwave shattered their hushed tones, and when I re-entered the room, Eric, who had been kneeling beside her, holding her hand, stood slowly and came to face me. His lips were pursed in a line, not angry, but pensive, and perhaps a little sad. I handed each one of the bottles off Gran's antique serving tray, I'd grabbed for the silver one first, wanting to look elegant before realizing my mistake and tucking it back in the cupboard.

I sat at one end of the couch, politely holding an iced tea so that the others wouldn't feel awkward. Eric came to sit beside me. I saw Pam's eyebrows go up, just a little, and a scowl cross her perfect pink lips. Eric pretended not to notice.

"I need to tell you both what happened." And he began his story of how he killed Russell Edgington.

(dun, dun, dun,….)


	11. Chapter 11

Now all of us know / knew that the only way to finally dispatch Russell was with the sun; some kind of fabulous poetic license the mythology gives us, so I know my version of his death is going to seem familiar, to a degree. But trust me, I was setting this up before Alan Ball decided that faery blood lets you walk in the sun, so you won't see that nonsense here.

You will see some use of silver, which I set up more than 2 weeks ago, so I hope you still enjoy my vision.

And with that out of the way, please read on my friends.

Merick

Chapter Eleven

"I had never tasted Russell's blood, but I had tasted Talbot's." That first sentence made me shiver. Talbot, Russell's lover, and master of the house I had been held in had scared the hell out of me. To simply look at him you might only see the uptight stereotypical designer of television's DYI channels, fussing over table settings, dirt on his rugs and paint swatches, but he was something so much more terrifying. All of that creative power and energy were bundled into a body with minimal impulse control, and the power of an old vampire, used to getting his way, giving orders, and having them followed to the letter out of sheer fear. His appearance, with large, soft eyes, rich skin and delicate movements belied the monster within and I could not say that I was unhappy that Eric had killed him. How Eric had come to taste his blood was not a story I wished to hear.

"It was a fragile link to exploit, but it was the only one I had, that and the assumption that Russell would be close enough still to exact his revenge on me." Eric continued his story.

"I listened and paid sources to keep me apprised of particularly gruesome murders so that I could examine the scenes myself, to see if I could sense his presence. He and Talbot had shared blood for eight hundred years, mingled as it was I hoped I could sense it somehow."

That got me to wondering. I knew that vampires must share blood amongst themselves when they were intimate, or when they shared the maker, child bonds; or I should say that I assumed they did. I wondered if they shared any nutrition from that blood or if it was the other properties; to change, to heal, that were the only physical benefits.

"In my search I was sadly reminded of just how cruel humans can be to one another, having seen mutilated bodies that had nothing to do with either Vampires or Weres. But I did find some where I felt a familiarity that I ascribed to the blood. The first, a prostitute, impaled on a stake, gave me a clue, a scent to follow, which gave me the next scene."

The number of people Russell had slaughtered in his rage made me feel ill. Eric described four more bodies, all men until the last, and the description of that scene left me cold. A waitress, at a dive bar, in a filthy alley and I knew that one had been an analogue for me. Eric knew it too.

"Russell's circle was narrow, and I made sure to walk it, and to leave my own marks so that he would know I was there, hunting him. I had found a park, Bienville National Forest and I meant to draw him there."

Another thing I did not want to know was what he meant by 'his own marks', the thought of it was hammering at the construct I wanted so desperately to hold on to.

"I found his daytime hiding place and made certain that he knew I had done so, I meant to ensure that he would not feel safe so he would chase me. I had prepared the place I meant to finally meet him, ensured that it was fairly remote, and secured a location for myself to retreat to should I survive the encounter."

I heard Pam gasp just under her breath, any talk of the death of her maker made her uneasy, and upset. It was a human side to her, if I was allowed to say that, that I cannot imagine many people had seen. I knew enough to understand that escaping Russell was not easily accomplished, Bill had secured Jessica's escape by offering a more exciting target, and he himself had only escaped because of Eric's actions against Talbot. It didn't seem quite right to say murder, for a number of reasons.

"The trick was getting him there late enough into the night that whatever fight we had would stretch into the sunrise. It wasn't as difficult as I thought, evading him running through the forest. If it hadn't been for the fact that he was trying to kill me, it might have been an amusing diversion." He grinned, which only served to further horrify me, and draw a scowl from Pam, in that disapproving way she had about her.

"It made Russell very angry that I was continually able to evade him, and the anger worked to my advantage because he lost track of time, and of the urgings of his body at the approaching dawn. When it was close I took my final stand in the center of a glade I had discovered, and without him seeing I snapped a silver manacle; a wide one, over my right wrist. As he came for me I snapped the other end over his. Then all I had to do was wait and keep him from killing me first."

Well that explained the bloody mess that had been his wrist when he had arrived at my home. Pam looked suitably horrified at the thought; she knew the pain of silver burns.

"I used everything I had in me to keep him in the glade as the sun rose, though he cursed at me in a dozen languages, and finally, through the pain of my own flesh starting to burn I was able to answer the question he kept hurling at me, why?"

"'Do you remember'," Eric recounted to us his words to Russell and the vampire's reactions, "'a Viking king, a crown you coveted and a family you had your wolves slaughter?' I asked him. He stared at me, with a horrible realization in his eyes right then, and I could tell that he knew of whom I spoke even though it had been over a thousand years prior. 'You had your foul, addle-brained wolves attack and kill my father, and my mother and my sister for nothing more than a trophy! There was no honor in that! And now I will finally avenge their deaths with yours!'"

"The old ones burn more quickly, they are so far removed from living cells that there is nothing at all to protect them." Eric told me, which explained why Bill was able to rise from his daytime rest and walk so far to try to save me from Rene. He was not nearly so old as Eric or Russell. And indeed, my own presence at Godric's passing bore this out; it had come on him so quickly, like his body had simply flashed out of existence.

"But your burns holding him there, and with the silver must have been terrible." Pam's eyes were actually laced with blood again, even though she knew the outcome of the tale, what with Eric sitting in front of her, well and whole.

"They were. But his were worse. I listened to him scream and curse at me, gnashing his teeth and trying to tear at me even as he tried to cover himself with his clothing to stave off the fire. He managed a few bites in his fury and besides the burning I lost a great deal of blood lying there in that field. By a certain point I had decided through the anguish that it did not matter then whether I died or not. But then there came this peaceful feeling, perhaps from the acceptance of my fate, perhaps simply because I could feel no more pain, and I felt clear. I looked over to him, to see this body turning to ash the flailing abating and I knew he was finished, and a quest of nearly a thousand years was accomplished."

I felt my own eyes beginning to tear and I reached out to take his hand, not even caring if Pam saw. He squeezed mine back confidently, with a little smile directed right at me, and I saw Pam, from the corner of my eye, scowl at the both of us again.

"Before my left hand could be too badly damaged I flung it over his recumbent form and ripped the fangs from his jaw."

"You still have them?" Pam was quite interested in that, I didn't know just why then.

"I do." He raised my hand to his lips and kissed it. "Sookie recovered them from my clothing for me." So that was what had been in that little pouch, I felt much better for not having opened it. Pam held her tongue about the kiss.

"When he was truly gone I rolled and dragged myself to the edge of the glade, leaving flesh and blood behind to where I had created a hollow in the earth. By then my right hand was reduced to mere bone and tendon and the manacle slipped from my wrist. I kicked it aside, and cradling that arm forced myself underground, dragging the walls of my tunnel in over me. And then I slept, not expecting to wake."


	12. Chapter 12

As always I am humbled to be able to play with these characters. Please enjoy.

Merick

Chapter twelve

My hands were shaking so badly I could hardly lift my tea glass without the ice cubes clinking together. Hearing about what he had gone through made me feel sick for so many reasons. I hated to think of someone I cared for going through that kind of pain; because I could admit then to myself that I did care for him. But I also hated to think of him as a real vampire, as stupid as that sounds. I didn't want to think about him killing others, drinking human blood; except my own of course, and falling victim to the myriad ways that vampires can be killed. I wanted him to be my Eric, my handsome, sexy, freakin' hot vampire lover, not the ruthless, cold, calculating Eric who ran Area Five through intimidating power. I wanted him to crawl into my bed and hold me, and sing to me again, and be that Eric, and I was afraid that if I listened to more of his story that I would hear more than I wanted to. But despite that fear, I continued to listen, keeping one hand in my lap, the other wrapped in his.

"I did wake, and everything ached, worse than any pain I had ever felt. And I knew that I had barely healed during the day, and that time would not be enough. Blackened by the dirt and self immolation I dragged myself from the earth, and in the darkness went in search of sustenance." Pam's ears perked up that sentence; she liked seeing Eric as the ruthless vampire, in every way opposite to me.

"I found some campers who I was able to glamour enough to not have to fight them, I didn't have the energy."

"You didn't kill them did you?" I asked, trying not to sound horrified or accusatory. Pam almost hissed at me.

"No Sookie, I did not. I could not have disposed of the bodies properly, and the last thing any of us need is more talk of serial killer, terrorist vampires running around." Always practical that Eric, and as for me, I kept on hoping there was more to it than just not having the strength to bury them.

"With their blood I was able to get clear of the forest that night, and go to ground a little closer to home. Such were the next three days and nights until I made it here; some blood, the earth, and enough energy to continue walking. I still did not know if I would survive until I awoke hidden away in your home Sookie, still tasting your blood on my lips." Pam made an odd noise that unnerved me greatly.

"But I knew I had to make it here, so that you would know, so that you could tell everyone that Russell was gone. I didn't want to die out there, alone, unmourned."

"You were mourned Eric." Pam's voice had gone from upset, to uncomfortable to honest in only a few minutes. I nodded in agreement. I knew she must have been holding back her disappointment, or anger at the thought that Eric had come to me instead of her. And I hoped that whatever seed those emotions had planted, that the growth would not come back to haunt me. But I thought just then that I understood him.

"You needed someone to know for certain, someone who had no reason to lie, or embellish the story didn't you?" He smiled.

"The Authority might not have believed Pam, but you Sookie, they would have had no reason to doubt you. You have nothing to gain." Pam was clearly offended, and stood, obviously angry. "And I knew you would go to Pam with the news, whatever it was you had to relate to her."

"So you followed your lust and not your loyalty?" She spit the words at us both. "Just like a man! You trusted her and not me? Do I mean so little to you Eric!" She stormed from my house, slamming the door behind her.

Eric looked at me an apology on his face. "It was not as she says, why I came here, you know that don't you?"

I nodded again, and reached out to touch his face, I could see the pain there. Eric spoke directly, it was often an admirable quality, but he could certainly lack 'bedside manners' at the most inopportune times. I knew Pam had simply spoken out of anger and frustration, I had done it myself, and how could I fault her? It wasn't hard to be hurt when you felt that the one you loved more than anyone else had betrayed you. If anyone could understand it was me. I wanted Eric to stay with me there, but my words told him to go after her. He went quickly, I followed more slowly.

Pam was stomping back onto my porch with a duffle bag in her left hand; she threw it at Eric as he emerged from the house. I watched him catch it easily, despite the fury with which she had hurled it.

"Here's everything you asked for Master!"

"Pam. You are being ridiculous." His soft tone only augmented her fury. Her answer came in a language I did not understand, though I heard my name in there somewhere.

Eric roared his answer back.

"In English Pam!"

She raised her hand to slap him across the face, a blur to me, as was his hand shooting out to catch hers mid flight. He held it roughly, staring at her with the same look I remembered from Fangtasia; piercing, deadly, black. She matched it even though I could see how much his grip was hurting her.

"I know you thought I was dead Pam. Leaving the way I did was what I needed to do. I know you wanted to come, but killing Russell was my task. And I had to do it alone."

"My place is beside you Eric."

"Your place is to do what I ask of you, and to live on to remember my name."

"You know the pain, I have watched you mourn for Godric."

"I do not doubt you felt that pain Pam." He let her hand go. She rubbed it. "I do not doubt that you mourned for me." He let a little smile cross his lips, showing off just a sliver of his teeth. "But it seems that it did not stop you from spending my money." He gestured out to my pitiful driveway. "An S-Guard Pam?" He began to laugh.

The car that sat there was an anachronism against the gravel ruts and mud. Shiny black that nearly glowed in the moonlight, tinted windows and an intimidating air that said Foreign Diplomat far clearer than it said Bon Temps. Even I knew what that three-spoke emblem meant, and it meant more money than I earned in five years.

"You have no idea what it's been like since you left Eric! The bar is covered with anti-vampire graffiti; we get phone messages every night threatening to burn the place to the ground. Someone lit a gasoline cross on fire in the parking lot. I had to hire armed daytime security to watch the place. I am not prepared to be taken out by some fanatic with a sniper rifle or a frag grenade made out of silver!"

He continued to laugh and his smile was so beautiful to me, even if it infuriated her.

"And for your information, it's leased!" She made to stomp off again but Eric grabbed at her, whirling her about in his arms.

"I love it Pam. When you get home call your dealer and order me one too, in fact order two more, one for me and one for Sookie."

Both of us responded with pretty much the same answer.

"What?"

"Sookie's life is still in danger from Russell's weres, other vampires, and humans who may see her as a sympathizer with us. I will not have my lover unprotected."

When he said it out loud to Pam 'my lover' my stomach did a flip-flop.

"Eric, we said we were going to be inconspicuous, I can't drive a Mercedes to Merlotte's. Everyone will know that something is going on."

"I agree with Sookie Eric." I hadn't expected to ever hear Pam say that. "There will be questions as to where she has acquired it, and from whom. A waitress does not make enough money to even lease one of these. No offense Sookie."

"Lafayette drives a Competizione and parks it at Merlotte's." Eric countered. I had no idea what a Competizione was, but I did remember seeing Lafayette with a cherry new car. "No one has asked him about it."

"Everyone knows that Lafayette has other sources of income. For Sookie it will make her more of a target."

"But at least she will have a truly safe place to run to. I doubt even a were could tear into that beast."

"Probably not."

"I can't Eric." I tried to reason with him, quite unsuccessfully.

"You can and you will." At first his voice sounded authoritarian, which bothered me, because I did not intend to get ordered around by any man. He saw the look on my face and realized that I was upset. "Please Sookie. Just until I can figure something out to ensure your safety. Do this for me."

What could I do? I nodded mutely, feeling a little sick to my stomach.

"Just make sure it's not so shiny as yours okay Pam?"

"Yes. Will you be coming back with me now Eric?" She put on her organizer persona again, which better suited her suit and heels.

"I'll meet you back there by midnight Pam, there are a few more things I need to discuss with Sookie before I leave."

"I can wait."

"No, you go on ahead, get a hold of Nan and see if I can speak to The Authority tonight. I need to tell them what's happened, and find out if they have any other tasks for me to complete."

"Of course." She nodded to him. He took her in his arms though, and hugged her, kissing the top of her head.

"Thank you for everything Pam." The sincerity of his voice brought the blood tears to her eyes again. She dabbed at them, as I turned away, giving her the privacy of her emotions.

Eric brushed past me, back into the house, duffle bag in his hand. I turned back to Pam.

"Good Bye Sookie. Thank you for what you did for Eric."

"You're welcome Pam."

We looked at each other there on the porch, not quite sure how we would end our conversation. We weren't friends; we might even have become rivals that night for his affections, any memories of shared pain over a lousy Kung-Fu movie were gone.

"If you can't love him Sookie, as he is, please tell him now."

Then she stepped off the porch, back to her fancy, shiny car. I went back in the house before she pulled away.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Eric was in the spare bedroom laying out the contents of the bag Pam had brought him when I came in from the night. I watched him from the doorway for a few seconds, smiling to myself at the sight of him, but still thinking about what Pam had said, at least until he turned to me and I banished the introspection and walked over to him.

"You want to watch me get dressed Sookie?"

"No," I paused, "that wasn't exactly what I had in mind." I raised my hands to his shoulders, and pushed the robe off them, it fell to the floor in a green terrycloth puddle. I let my left arm snake around his waist and up his back, as high as I could reach to just caress his neck. He waited to see what I would do next. It was still a little unnerving that he wasn't breathing, but I pushed that thought away too, I knew I could get a reaction out of him. I let my right hand drop down between our bodies, to brush my palm against him, and cup it down between his legs. As I watched his face, my neck craned upward and continued to touch him he moaned softly and let his head fall back, eyes closed. It was a beautiful, deep, honest sound and I loved hearing it. I could feel his arousal growing underneath my ministrations and hear his moaning increasing. With a soft snick he dropped his fangs, and again he was my vampire lover and the fantasy took me.

In an instant I felt him lift me off my feet and take the few steps to the guest bed. With my arms now wrapped around his neck he laid me down and knelt just between my legs, running his hands up them to the hem of my dress. With a solid grip and a grin on his face that exposed his fangs he took the edge of my skirt in his hands and tore it apart, ripping it fully to the bodice, and leaving me exposed to him as it dropped away. He fell over my body, bringing his mouth to my ear to whisper to me, a lilt of joy in his voice.

"Don't worry, I'll buy you another." Just as he forced himself into me, rock hard from my caresses, deeper and harder than he ever had before. I cried out with the glorious pain and excitement of feeling his unrestrained lust.

His mouth found mine, even as he continued thrusting against me, fangs still drawn. I forced my tongue against them, slashing it, tasting my own blood as it tangled with his. I felt the shudder run the length of his body at he realized what I had done. He ground his lips against mine so hard that I felt they might bruise, but I forced back against him as hard as I could, not caring. With a wild growl that I felt forming in his chest he pulled his face away from mine, and I watched him bring the sharpened points down on his own lower lip. Blood welling on it, he kissed me again. I drank in his blood, sweet and heavy as it was, feeling the slight pains abate, filling me with a ferocious strength to match his.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled my body to his, hanging on as I felt his skin sliding against mine, I cried out as I finally lost control, giving my body up to him. His own roar, just a few moments later made my whole soul tremble. Trembling that continued as he pressed his lips against mine once again, this time softly, as the waves washed over us both.

We lay together, me wrapped in his arms, head resting on his shoulder, still breathing heavily, but slowly calming down.

"I'm going to have to go soon Sookie. And there are things I still need to talk to you about."

I rolled over to face him, loving the coolness of his body against my hot skin.

"I need you to call Alcide Herveaux and tell him that Russell is dead, and that the Weres from his pack are without a master and a steady source of V."

"They've been tearing up Jackson for a few weeks now."

"He should tell his pack master to begin their hunt. I would do it myself, but they should have the right to deal with those who defiled their territory first. I am likely the last person that Herveaux wants to hear from, but having you deliver the news will grant you some measure of status with their pack. It is always good to have friends you can call upon, or those who owe you favors."

He stroked my hair absentmindedly.

"I'll call him first thing in the morning Eric."

"Tell him that I am always available should his pack want help in the culling." Again the image of two men who were part of my life taking part in such a bloody fight made me shiver. But I knew Debbie, and I'd seen the other Weres from that pack. I doubted many of them would back down or flee. It wasn't my place to criticize how another group enforced their laws, not so long as they didn't interfere with how I lived my life. Ridding the world of Debbie Pelt would certainly make my life easier; though I felt distinctly un-Christian thinking that. And it seemed just a little bit selfish right then.

"How will you protect yourself when I am not here Sookie?"

"I have Sam and Jason, and Jessica here. And I can always call you, can't I?"

"Of course. But you must consider that I may not be able to reach you as quickly as others."

"What do you mean?"

"You must consider that Bill Compton is here, and while he is not as old as I am, he is strong, and he is well motivated to protect you."

"I can't call on him Eric." I shook my head and looked at him as if he was quite crazy. I'd just finally ended things with Bill; I hadn't even seen him since that night. I couldn't go running back to him, what would that say to him? What would that do to him? Since I couldn't tell him I was with Eric now he might easily take it the wrong way. And however angry I was with him, or sad and disappointed; it fluctuated; I couldn't just use him the way he'd used me. Or the way I'd used Eric in the past. I had to be a better person than that.

"If it means your life, then you must Sookie."

"Hopefully it will not come to that Eric." I meant that as more of a prayer, for so many reasons.

"You could always come and stay with me, until I figure out what to do. You could call Sam in the morning and quit your job. I can look after you."

"And what would I do up in Shreveport all day Eric?"

"Watch television and eat bon bons?" He smiled at me.

"Then I'll just get fat and you won't want me anymore."

"Oh I'm certain we could figure out something to do to burn off the calories." He grinned and nipped at my neck playfully.

"All the same Eric, Bon Temps is my home, I'd miss the house, and my friends, and my job. I'm just not ready to give it all up yet."

"Yet?"

I smacked him on the arm. He rubbed it, pretending that it had hurt him, then rolled over and sat up, making ready to get dressed. Reaching out a hand I traced one of the scars on his back with two fingers.

"Where did you get these Eric?"

"Reminders of my human life." He looked back at me over his shoulder. "Things were not so easy a thousand years ago."

"Things are not so easy now." I said.

He dropped his head, pensively, pursing his lips together.

"Will you tell me about it one day?"

"One day." He stood and began to dress. I watched the lines of muscle under his skin as he moved. He was beautiful, like a sculpture in marble.

"When will I see you again Eric?"

"You are working tomorrow night?"

"Till close, about twelve midnight or so."

"If it's safe I'll wait for you on your porch then."

I swung my own legs out of the bed and picked up his fallen robe, wrapping it around myself. The hem nearly touched the floor. I must have looked like a little girl all wrapped up in it but it still made him smile. He held out his hand, and I took it, following him back out to the living room.

"Where's your cell phone?" He asked me.

I fetched it from my purse.

At vampire speed he entered his new phone number and handed it back to me. I looked at what he had typed in. He'd put himself on my speed dial, first number, 'Lover'. I raised my eyebrows and looked up at him as if to say 'are you kidding me?'. He just laughed.

He came over and kissed me on my forehead.

"Stay safe for me Sookie."

"You do the same Eric."

"I will find a way, I promise you."

And then he was gone.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

I set my alarm for seven am, just to make sure I could get a hold of Alcide before he went to work. Shaking the fog from my brain I wrapped myself in the green robe again and went to the kitchen to make my call.

"Morning." His voice seemed a little wary when he answered the phone, but perhaps no more so than I'd heard in the past. Alcide and I had never really had a quiet moment together when one of us, usually me, wasn't in fear for their life, or preoccupied with a former lover's threats. Our conversations generally involved serious, nasty stuff, not much 'how's the weather?' for us.

"Alcide? It's Sookie."

"What's wrong?" I loved the way he just jumped to my rescue without a thought. It made me feel warm inside, and reminded me of the strong arms that had held me so many times when I'd been crying over Bill.

"Everything's okay Alcide, I just have a message for you."

"A message?"

"You need to know that Russell Edgington is dead, for good this time, and his pack doesn't have a leader, or a steady supply of V anymore." I'd rehearsed what I was going to say a few times over while I was falling asleep, just to make sure I got it all out properly. "I was told to tell you so that your pack could do what was necessary." I didn't really want to say anything so melodramatic as 'so you can mete out your Werewolf justice' or anything like that, that's why I practiced.

"How do you know this Sookie?"

"Eric Northman killed him, he told me all about it last night. He wanted to make sure that your pack leader knew right away. He also said that if you wanted his help with Russell's weres that you could let me know and I could broker something between you."

I heard Alcide take a deep breath on the other end of the line. I didn't know if it was the news that Russell was dead that had caused it, or the fact I had admitted that I had been with Eric.

"I don't think the pack leader will want his help, no one's apt to trust vamps much anymore."

"He didn't think you'd want it anyways, but he said it was important that you knew that he would defer to your pack's rights in the matter."

"I'm glad to hear that he understands that."

"You know you can call me though, right?"

"Thanks Sookie, I appreciate the information, and your offer, so will the pack. You've done us a great service today."

"Anything I can do to help make things right for you Alcide."

"Did you need me to come out there?"

"No, I'm okay Alcide, you have important things to deal with now at home. How is Janice by the way?"

"She's managing okay, insurance came through on the shop and she's setting up again. Now that we can go after the rogue weres I think things will get easier for everyone. How's Bill?"

"We ah, we ah kinda broke up Alcide." Another deep exhale on his part.

"Sorry?" It was a hesitant response on his part.

"Don't be. I think I must be the dumbest girl in Louisiana to have not seen the truth earlier."

"Yeah, I kinda wondered how you could take him back after he nearly killed you and all."

"One to talk Alcide." He laughed.

"Yeah, you and I are a couple of real idiots." Then I laughed.

"You'll stay in touch won't you? Let me know how things go?"

"Sure I will Sookie."

We kind of waited in silence for a moment, then said nothing but goodbyes, leaving something in the air of the line between us. Alcide was a good guy, and handsome, and protective, and warm, and sexy, and then I had to stop myself. He also had as much baggage as I did, and for all I knew, was going to be heading out to slaughter a pack of wolves that very night. Which, if I thought about it, probably wasn't all that much different than the man I was sleeping with. How did my life turn into much a big mess anyways?

Oh yeah, vampires.

After talking with Alcide I got dressed and went out to see what I could do with Gran's flowerbeds. I cut back the mangled bits, it was a little late to plant new stuff that season, but I could at least clean up. I heard the truck on my driveway almost before I could see it, as it rumbled against my rutted gravel. It didn't raise much of a dust cloud before coming to a stop, being that day was overcast and a bit damp feeling. The driver swung out of the cab, picking up a large white parcel box as he did. Not expecting any kind of delivery the Fed Ex uniform surprised me, but the driver had a big smile on his face despite the impending weather, which I couldn't help sharing.

"Miss Stackhouse?" I'd stood up to dust the dirt off my knees and tuck some stray stands of hair back behind my ears so I looked somewhat presentable.

"Yes, that'd be me."

"I have a delivery here for you." He held out the box. It had the regular address stuff on it, that I could see, but not much else, which made it a bit of a mystery for me. I tucked it under one arm as he handed me the little electronic pad to sign, which I did, then he tipped his ball cap at me and climbed back into the truck.

I put my gardening tools away first, I didn't want Gran's old iron trowels to get wet and rust, and as if by providence the first drops started to spatter as I got back to the porch. Rain in Bon Temps, on warm summer days wasn't really unpleasant; at least it wasn't when it was just gentle downpours, the rain that sometimes came in from the coast, the stuff that blew sideways, that wasn't so nice. But that day's rain was gentle, and I opened up all the windows along the main floor to just let the warm earthen smell permeate the house. I took the box into the kitchen, to get a pair of shears to cut open the clear tape all over it. I really had no idea who was sending me anything, perhaps I should have.

Peeling back the tissue paper the contents were wrapped in I got a glimpse of denim blue and white, and pulling it out found a beautiful little sundress, trimmed in eyelet lace.

"Eric." I whispered to myself.

Underneath that dress was a second one, in pink, just as pretty and girly, and underneath that was a third parcel wrapped in black tissue. The contents of that one were a little more typical for Eric, or at least the Eric of the bawdy innuendoes I had been used to before. One set was white, one set was black, more lace than fabric, but gorgeous, and no doubt, expensive. I couldn't help but giggle just a bit as I touched them. It was such a sweet, and somewhat enticing gesture. No one had bought me a present for no reason in ages, and it made me feel really special. I had no idea when he'd been able to even go shopping. Although he did have the Internet, so he could have arranged it all from the safety of his house, or Fangtasia.

Thinking about that got me to wondering how things were at the bar. Pam had said they'd had some vandalism, and threats. I hoped that things might start to calm down once the news about Russell finally got out. I really found that I cared about what happened in Shreveport, and not just for Eric, for Pam as well. She was growing on me, in an odd sort of way, kind of like the mother-in-law you had to impress. Her last words to me were stuck in my head, and after putting away the gifts; and trying them on first, truth be told, I grabbed my umbrella and went for a walk through the cemetery.

I ended up with Gran, as I often did, I still loved talking to her, and not that I had ever really doubted she was listening to me, after everything I'd learned about since the vampires came to Bon Temps, I was certain that if anyone was going to be able to come back, in one form or another, it would be Gran.

I told her about Bill, and I told her about Alcide, and then I told her about Eric; not the nasty stuff about sleeping with him, she was my Gran after all. And I told her about the fairy stuff, just in case she didn't know about it already. Then I just sort of listened to hear her voice; Eric would have said my subconscious, to see what she'd have to say.

"Sookie my girl, everybody has a past, some folks just have longer ones than others. And everybody's got something back there that they aren't too proud of. But if we are going to be decent folks we have to give everyone the chance to move past those things, and try not to judge them too harshly."

But it really was more than that. Bill had at least tried to mainstream, he drank Tru Blood, and tried to fit in with the people of Bon Temps. Eric, well, Eric was a vampire, and he didn't apologize for it. He drank human blood; I'd seen him take it enough times; albeit from willing donors, mostly. And Eric could, had and probably would kill again. Not out of malice, but out of an unfortunate necessity. And just the fact that I was thinking about killing in those terms scared me. Before Bill I'd never killed anyone, I'd have probably gone my whole life without killing anyone. Just thinking about someone deserving to die, while not remarkable considering everything I'd seen, was unnerving. If I stayed with Eric would I be condoning his lifestyle? Did it matter, and was it even up to me? I ate beef. I suppose that vegetarians probably looked at me as a murderer too. And Eric wasn't an apex predator: I watch Discovery Channel too, not like Russell had seen himself. I let out a big sigh.

Was Pam's request fair? Love him as he is, or let him go. I didn't really know who the real Eric was yet, not enough to make that kind of decision.

"And really Sookie girl, is this relationship any different than a 'human' one? You learn about the other person, and you grow together or you grow apart. You discover as part of falling in love. And you have to take the chance, and give the chance."

Gran made a lot of sense, and I felt kind of peaceful as I wandered back to the house to get ready for work. I put on the white set, just in case Eric did happen by after my shift.


	15. Chapter 15

Once again, the characters herein are not my own, and I have muddled together cannon and fantasy to create my script, do enjoy.

Merick

Chapter Fifteen

I watched the TV at Merlotte's in quick glances all night long, waiting for someone to break in with news of Russell's death, but there was nothing, and I began to wonder if Eric had even been able to tell his story last night or if he was still waiting for his audience with this Authority group. If he was the chances of him being on my porch when I got home weren't that good. Plus, it was still raining and I didn't know if rain was more unpleasant for Vampires. It couldn't have been too nice to fly though I imagined.

I also kept my ears open to hear if there had been any unusual crimes in Jackson; specifically bloody crime scenes because I didn't know if Weres carried off their victims, or hid them, or what they might do beyond leaving naked corpses lying about. But of course I was being foolish, even if Alcide's pack had gone hunting it was likely too soon for anything to show up on the news, if it even showed up at all.

The rain had kept the crowds at Merlotte's kind of sparse that evening, so I finally had a chance to catch up with Sam, who I had been woefully neglecting for many weeks. He'd been kind, and not pushed me to find out why I'd been so down and so anxious; intermittently, but I was pretty sure Jessica had told him that Bill and I had broken up, and he had to have noticed the absence of Bon Temps oldest Vampire. He was behind the counter tending the bar when I sat down after delivering the orders to my last table.

"How are you doing Sam?" he was reorganizing liquor bottles and packing up empties and answered me without looking up.

"I'm fine Sookie, how are you?"

"I'm okay. Your brother seems nice." I tried to edge my way into a conversation.

"He has his moments." Still he wasn't looking up.

"Do you like having family here?" At that he looked up, right into my eyes.

"Little brothers can be a handful." He said to me with a half grin and little shake of his head.

"Don't I know it?" Of course I was referring to Jason.

"Especially when they bring home friends from the bar." He sighed.

"Yup, know that one too."

That launched us into a relaxed, friendly conversation, the kind like we used to have. Mutual problems are always an icebreaker. Turns out that Tommy's maturity level hadn't much reached Jason's yet, though I had to give Jason some credit, there hadn't been any nasty rumors about him floating in people's heads recently, and I hadn't seen him around Merlotte's getting drunk either. Something good was going on, and I made another mental note to call him and check in on his life.

Nobody came in for dinner after ten o'clock, mostly because of the rain. I puttered around rolling cutlery and making tea for the next day's lunch all the while mindful of the television, at least until Sam switched it over to football. When eleven hit and the rain wasn't getting better Sam offered to drive Jessica and I home. I didn't want to be without my car though and we compromised with Jessica calling Bill to have him wait for us at his place to make sure we got there all right. From there I didn't think I'd have any issues getting home, it was just a couple of roads, and it wasn't as if they were flooding or anything. Fact was, the rain was well needed.

Jessica and I piled into my sad little hatchback after assuring ourselves that Sam was going to be okay, Terry was still there, so we didn't feel as if we were really abandoning him. We'd have waved at them as we pulled out, but they wouldn't probably have seen us through the water anyways.

Jessica, who'd been pretty quiet through the evening started to talk to me once we were alone.

"Are you ever going to forgive Bill Sookie?"

"I have Jess." I kept my eyes on the road, not turning to see what expressions were on her face as she spoke.

"Then do you think you and he might get together again?"

"I don't think so Jessica. Too many things have happened between us."

"But he's so sorry for everything Sookie, and he still loves you."

"I don't want to get into this Jessica. I'm sorry I just can't trust him anymore."

"I just don't want him to be alone Sookie. I don't know what will happen to him when I leave." She was leaving? I didn't know anything about that.

"Where are you going?"

"Hoyt asked me to move in with him, he bought a house and everything." Her excitement was palpable and I wanted to be excited for her, but not at the cost of agreeing to restore some kind of relationship with Bill again.

"He was alone before you came to Bon Temps." I didn't want to actually say before he turned her. "He'll be fine."

"I don't know that he will Sookie."

"He'll have to be Jessica. I need to move on."

"He needs you."

"No he doesn't. And if he did he wouldn't have treated me the way he did." I hadn't wanted to have the conversation, and I hadn't wanted to get angry, especially in front of Jessica. I didn't know how much of the truth she knew, and I didn't want to be the one to tell her what her maker was capable of. Though I thought that Bill might have purged his soul to her, if to anyone, maybe she already knew. I tried to focus back on the road.

"I'm really happy for you and Hoyt, he's the greatest guy and you two are going to be really happy together. But I can't be with Bill again. I need to be happy too."

"Are you seeing someone Sookie?"

"I don't know yet Jessica, maybe. But I want the chance to find out. I know Bill is important to you, but please, don't ask this of me."

"I'm sorry Sookie. I want you to be happy too, it was just so great when you were around all the time."

"I'm still just across the cemetery, you can come and see me anytime Jessica."

"But I should maybe call first?"

I smiled and laughed just a bit. "Yeah, maybe."

"Want to tell me who?"

"Nope, not yet."

"That big handsome werewolf?"

I just sighed.

"Fine, no more questions Sookie."

By then we were at Bill's house. I could see him out on the front stoop, waiting on us, he raised one hand to wave, and I could see the weak little smile on his face in my headlights. He really did look awful. Part of my heart softened to see him. I put my hand out to touch Jessica's arm before she opened the door.

"I'll try to call him every so often Jessica." I knew my voice didn't have a lot of strength in it, and I wasn't quite convinced that I could do it, but it just hurt me to see him so miserable, even though he'd made me feel even worse.

"Thank you Sookie." She leaned over and gave me a little hug. "And thanks for the ride home. I'll have Bill call Sam as soon as we get inside." She opened the door and dashed out at vampire speed, I wondered if she even got wet before hitting the porch. They both waved at me from their shelter, I held up a hand and a smile I had to grit my teeth to produce. I was such a wimp, no matter how badly Bill had made me feel I just kept setting myself up for more. I needed to find a backbone, and quickly, or at least some serious resolve.

Fortunately, it was waiting for me at home.

I turned onto my driveway and saw my outside lights on, revealing a large black sedan parked up near my house. Having seen one the night before I recognized the Mercedes S-Guard right away, even through the driving rain. My first thought was that Pam had returned, likely to bring me a message from Eric, but it wasn't her haute coutured form that stood up from my porch swing, there was no mistaking the six foot plus figure in the dark leather coat. My heart skipped a beat and a tremble ran through my core. I pulled my car up beside the Mercedes, and rushed onto the porch and into his arms.

"Oh Eric, I'm so glad to see you!"

"I am happy to see you as well my lover, the rain is so terrible, I worried for you having to drive." He spoke all of this to me as he held me against his chest and stroked my damp hair. " I wondered if I shouldn't just come to Merlotte's and leave your new car there for you."

"My new car? Oh no Eric, you didn't really, did you?"

"Of course I did." He pushed keys into my hand. "But I promise you that I drove through every muddy puddle I could find so it looks just like all the other cars in Bon Temps right now."

"It will never look like anything else in Bon Temps Eric."

"But you will drive it won't you?"

I sighed. "Just until things calm down Eric. Come in, tell me what happened last night."

"I'd rather just take off your wet clothing and make love to you over and over again."

My whole body trembled at the sound of his voice, rich like cream, and just as sweet. I couldn't get my keys in the door, and with a purr in my ear he took them from me and turned the lock. I tossed my wet coat, and purse on the closest chair as he shut the door, not caring about the water. All I wanted right then was his mouth, and he understood, taking mine roughly, which was exactly what I wanted then, all thoughts of Bill pushed aside completely by the feel of Eric's body.

(I think in chapter sixteen we'll make some lemonade, what do you say? Oh and we'll find out about The Authority meeting too. )


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Our mouths still locked together he reached under my white Merlotte's Tee Shirt and began pulling it off. We broke our kiss only long enough to tug it over my head and then it ended up on the floor somewhere too. I didn't much care where just then.

"Mmmm. You got my parcel." He ran his hands over the lace and satin, continuing to purr in my ear and kiss my neck.

"I did, thank you Eric, everything was so beautiful."

"You are so beautiful Sookie." And he wrapped his arms under my bottom and lifted me into air, pressing my body against his chest. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck.

"Bedroom?" His voice sounded nearly as desperate as I felt.

"Oh God yes."

We fell onto the bed, but Eric was careful not to crush me, landing on his elbows, and remaining there, half hovering over me; or maybe he was completely hovering over me, I didn't know, all I felt was the electricity of his nearness. I began pawing at the buttons on his shirt, pulling them open and letting the sides fall so that I could see the six pack of perfect muscle, and those oh so delicious cuts that led down to the obvious bulge in his jeans.

I shimmied out of my shorts so fast you'd have thought they were on fire: 'course that wasn't what was burning inside me. I watched Eric's face, as he took in the sight of me in the little white bra and panty set he'd sent. I couldn't help but smile and gasp just a little with excitement when he dropped his fangs and moaned just a bit. He sat back and yanked his arms from the sleeves of his shirt, tossing it away too. I'd have a lot of tidying up to do come morning.

"How was your day my lover?" He had an impish smile on his face as he asked me, promptly going to his work of unhooking my bra.

"I missed you. I was afraid you wouldn't make it back here."

"A little rain would never keep me away from you." Task accomplished he buried his head in my cleavage and began to run his tongue over me, making my chest arch towards his hungry mouth, and drawing out uncontrolled moans of my own. "Your heart is racing my lover, are you all right?" Damned sarcastic vampire boy; I could almost hear his grin.

"Take your pants off lover. I don't want to wait for you anymore." Hell with this, we could draw out the love making on the second round, or maybe the third, but right then I wasn't in the patient kind of mood.

"As you wish." Vampire speed that time, and he returned to me, long, pale, hard body laid out over mine, teasing me with his closeness and the brush of his member against my skin.

"I need you Eric." I was begging, I can admit it, trust me, you would too if you'd seen him then. My God he looked delicious, and I told him as much, much to his amusement as he drove himself inside me.

There wasn't an awful lot of chitchat after that, not comprehensible words anyways. Just my desperate cries and his animal growls as he thrust himself against me, meeting the bucking of my hips, drawing him into me as deeply as I could. He kept his head thrown back, mouth open wide, fangs glistening against the red of his lips and tongue. He was the most beautiful, erotic thing I had ever laid my eyes upon, and he was mine. In that moment he was absolutely mine.

Ravenous eyes raked over my body as I clawed at his back and neck, wanting to touch every bit of him I could as my own climax built. Damned human constitution, and damned skilled vampire, he brought me out so fast I screamed as the waves took me, and clutched at him as if his presence was the only thing keeping me alive. My nails drew bloody tracks in his skin as he snarled at me, continuing to rock against me till he came to his own orgasm moments later.

I could feel the pulsing of his body within mine, and he held himself so still in those moments, I could watch every twitch of muscle across his chest as his peak washed through him, even as I felt it deep in my core. It was astounding to be completely enveloped in his climax as well as my own, watching his body tremble, watching his head fall to my chest, hair draping over his eyes, feeling the cautious brush of his fingertips over me, finding the place where we were still joined and stroking us both there. Everything felt absolutely complete as he pressed his lips to mine gently and drew a breath from me even as his tongue played with mine.

Reluctantly I drew my arms away from him as he finally rolled to my side. I looked at my fingertips, tinted with the red of his blood.

"Oh God Eric, I'm so sorry, did I hurt you?" His first response was to laugh at me.

"Never apologize to me for your passions Sookie. You have not hurt me in the slightest, in fact," he grinned, "it made it even more exciting."

"I should wash." I started to get up, a little disconcerted by the blood.

"No." He whispered, and held me back. "Take it."

I didn't understand what he wanted and cocked my head in my confusion until he took one of my hands in his and brought the fingers to his mouth gently pulling one inside and sucking on it, washing it over with his tongue.

"Take it, please."

Without taking my eyes off of him, and without any fear or revulsion either I must add, I took my own fingers into my mouth in turn and licked the blood from the tips. He closed his eyes as I did it, as if he could feel that remote part of his being still. As before, when I had taken the blood of his tears, I felt a tingling on my skin, and a vague sense of well being: totally different than what I suppose I had expected, which was a euphoria such as the V users experienced.

"Why don't I get high from your blood Eric?"

"I don't know Sookie. Perhaps because we have shared blood you are immune to those effects from me?" Not that I'd had a great deal of Vampire blood in my lifetime, but as I thought back on it later, I realized that Bill's blood hadn't given me a high either. It hadn't given me much beyond the healing and the dreams, but perhaps at the times I'd had it tingling and peacefulness were not exactly at the forefront of my needs.

"I still get the dreams."

"I am thankful for that my lover." He kissed my hand.

"Do you ever dream of me Eric?"

"All the time." His answer was so quick that I could not help but take it as wholly honest. "Since the day I first saw you."

I felt a blush creeping over my cheeks.

"I was such an idiot."

"No Sookie, you were drawn in because of your good heart, and kindness, and your desire to be loved, and to love. None of those things are about you are bad. You simply had the misfortune to come to the attention of the Queen who sent one of her best agents to procure you." He stroked my face as he spoke, but it didn't help to quell the bile rising in my throat. I hated that word; 'procure' it made me feel like an animal or an antique, something to be had, or stolen, locked away, it made me feel less than human.

"What are we going to do about the Queen Eric?"

"I am working on something Sookie. Please trust me. In a few days, when the news about her 'husband' comes out." I interrupted him.

"Her husband? She was married to Russell?"

"She was, but you have to understand that Vampire marriages are not usually about love. They are about political power, much like the alliances of your own history. Of my history." He conceded. "Russell wanted inroads into Louisiana, and to her Vampire population."

"Like you?"

"And Bill, and whatever he was working on for the Queen."

"Me."

"And Sophie Anne needed money, which Russell had in abundance. Now with him dead she inherits everything of his, including his money and territory. With any luck, the enjoyment of that will keep her busy for a good few weeks, giving me time to put my plan into action."

"So what did happen last night Eric, did you speak with your Authority?" I nestled myself into his arms as he propped himself back up on the headboard of my bed.

"I did, and I believe that things went very well. I have given them a great opportunity, and hopefully they do not soon forget the favor."

He began to tell me exactly how things had gone, all the while rubbing my back and shoulders, making me feel safe and somewhat invulnerable, in a way I had not felt in a very long time.

"I did not want to leave you last night Sookie, but I had to contact my people to tell them what had happened, and I couldn't very well do it from your home. The less people who know about you, the better. It was safer from Fangtasia so that was where I went. Pam was waiting, with news that Nan was on her way along with her V feds."

"V feds?"

"Slang term for these Vampire Police the Authority employs. They help to manage Vampire affairs."

"Like the Magisters?"

"Very much so, but they're more muscle."

"I see."

"They arrived first and set-up a video link so that we could all talk together. When Nan arrived she logged in and we got started. I told them the same story that I told you and Pam last evening. About how I had tracked Russell, and how I had finally killed him. Of course they asked for proof and I pulled out the pouch with his fangs. I dropped them into Nan's hand, still bloody. She was impressed, as much as that woman is ever impressed with anything. She pocketed them, presumably to test them to ensure they were his."

"How do they do that?"

"DNA I imagine, we might be dead, but just like mummies, you can still get DNA out of us." He laughed. "They must have samples of his blood somewhere, or hair or something from his mansion." I nodded; it seemed quite reasonable when he put it like that.

"So that's why they haven't made any announcements yet? They want to verify your story?"

"I'm sure that's part of it. But I imagine they are still working out the spin they are going to put on how it happened. They certainly can't just come out and announce that another vampire stalked and killed him. That probably wouldn't help our image. They'll have to concoct something, and that may take a few days to put together."

"So they won't give you credit for it will they?"

"I rather doubt it. In fact, it would be much safer if they didn't. But they are all aware of the service I have done for them. I hope to use that awareness in the not too distant future." He leaned down and kissed me.

"I spent the rest of the night arranging for the cleanup of my bar." His voice changed into something a little angrier than I had been used to with our pillow talk of the last few nights.

"A real mess was it?"

"Sadly, but at least it was still standing. I would have hated to have had to leave Shreveport for one of my other properties."

"You have other businesses?"

"A few, here and there. A farm that Pam likes to insult, a textile factory, and a manufacturing plant." I was afraid to ask what a vampire might manufacture. "All run from a distance, and separate from my work as Sherriff of Area 5. A little nest egg I guess. But I intend to get Fangtasia open again for the weekend. By then the news of Russell should have broken, and people will return to being enchanted with vampires, at least enough to drink with them."

"Will you never cease to amaze me Eric Northman?"

"I sincerely hope not my lover."


	17. Chapter 17

Thank you all for the kind reviews and musings about my plot line, I love your guesses as to where things may be going; it's so exciting to see my seeds bearing fruit.

Please enjoy this latest spin with Charlene's characters on my stage.

Chapter Seventeen

"Did you get a chance to speak with Alcide?" Eric and I had pulled ourselves out of bed for a few moments while I made myself a cup of tea. It had to be after one in the morning, I didn't want to check because I was in a good place, and seeing how late it was on a clock would have probably made me feel tired even if I wasn't, and I didn't want to fall asleep just then. I knew Eric would have to leave, and I knew that reopening the bar would mean that he would have even less time for me, and, like an addict, I didn't want to give him up.

"I did, I called him first thing after I got up. You were right Eric; he was quite pleased to get the news. Oh, that reminds me, I should probably turn on the news to see if anything has been going on in Jackson."

"What are you expecting to see?"

"Crime wave? Bodies? Assaults? Something indicative of the pack at work."

"I doubt you'll hear mention of anything Sookie. Weres are nearly as good at hiding bodies as Vampires." He grinned. I didn't want details. It was still hard to imagine Alcide, or Eric as killers. "Russell's pack are not the type of people that anyone is going to notice as being missing." All except one, Debbie, I thought to myself. I wondered how Alcide was going to deal with her punishment, her death. I had to be realistic then. If Alcide's pack master had any guts he would have them all killed, course I'd only met the man once, and at that juncture he had come across as a very weak individual. Of course I also knew that the pack mentality could give anyone strength, and Alcide could give anyone strength. I thought perhaps that I should call him again and make sure that he was doing okay.

"Are you concerned that their hunt will come here Sookie?" I guess Eric had been worried by my protracted silence.

"Maybe a little, I don't know Eric. The Weres have been here before. I just don't know." There were hundreds of possibilities running around in my head about Debbie Pelt storming into my house, or other Weres in my living room, I tried to push them away, I was tired of feeling afraid.

"You have the car, they won't be able to tear into that, or I can send someone to stay with you."

"I'll manage Eric."

"Or you could come and stay with me?"

"That's the third time you've asked me that Eric."

"And you haven't actually said no to me yet." He grinned. "I will continue to ask until you give in to me perhaps then?" All I could do was shake my head at him. With the way my heart was already missing him, and him not even having left yet I wondered if I wouldn't just give in to him eventually. Then I wondered if I was being silly. Three nights into a relationship and I was thinking about moving into together? I'd been with Bill for months and never thought that way. So what was different? A question for daytime musings I figured.

"How long can you stay?" At that moment a crack of lightening lit the sky, reflected in the polished surfaces of Gran's kitchen and the scant lights dimmed for a moment.

"Quite the storm, I don't really fancy flying home in it. Perhaps I should just wait it out?" As far as I was concerned we could repeat Noah's forty days and forty nights right then; and yes, before you say it, I know it was selfish. But I also knew that no damned Werewolves would stand a chance against my Vampire.

"I'd have you stay here forever." I whispered, common sense not kicking in that he'd hear me, and of course he did, which lit the biggest smile I had ever seen on his face.

"Let me take you back to bed my lover."

"Please." I whispered back.

The second round we took our time.

I was just on the verge of falling asleep to the rhythm of the raindrops on my window, when a kiss from Eric brought me back.

"I'm sorry my lover, do you have enough strength to talk for just another moment?"

"Always for you Eric. Do you have to go?" I felt a little empty pang in my gut just then.

"No, I'll hide away across the hall when the sun rises. I can get some work done from here after I wake, until you get home."

"Mmmm." I exclaimed lazily. "I washed up the clothes you wore the other day, they're on the dresser."

"I don't know that there is much about those that is salvageable. But not to worry, I put an overnight bag in the trunk of the car."

"Why didn't you bring it in?"

"I didn't want to be presumptuous."

"Silly." I didn't have the energy to pretend to smack him.

"But that wasn't what I wanted to ask you about." His fingers were trailing through my hair, twisting it over and between.

"Okay." I curled into his chest, feeling very happy to know he'd be in my home all day.

"You asked me before about the effect my blood has on you."

"Yes?" I was intrigued, and shook myself awake a little more.

"I want you to drink from me, if you will."

"Why Eric?"

"Not only does the blood help you heal, and give you strength, which I fear you may need in the coming days, but it allows me to be aware of you, and how you are feeling."

I knew that Bill could sense me because of all of his blood that I had been tricked into taking. Yes, there was still bitterness there, removed from seeing his face at his doorstop earlier. And he had told me that Eric would have a similar sense after the blood I took from him at Godric's. I said none of my musings out loud to Eric of course; I simply listened.

"I want to make certain that the bond is there before I return to Shreveport, and to work." Now came the sad part for my little heart.

"Once Fangtasia is reopened I will have to remain there for a good portion of the night. I may not be able to come to you each night, at least for a while. And by the time I am able to leave, you may already be asleep, and I would hate to wake you for my selfish pleasures." I didn't figure I'd mind at all, but as he sounded so sincere I let him continue. "Your health is important to me Sookie. I can give you my blood for the strength, but it isn't the same as looking after yourself properly, so I will have to spend some time away from you."

I nodded, wanting to understand and appreciate his concerns.

"But, if you will permit it, I wish to share in your feelings Sookie when I cannot be here with you, to know when you are happy, or sad, and mostly when you are distressed or afraid, so that I can come to you, or send someone if I am not close enough." I began to object, and sat up to look him in the eyes: those beautiful, deep blue jewels. Even looking at them brought me images of the ocean.

"If I can avoid it being Bill Compton I will Sookie. I am going to make a point to see his child in the coming nights, to speak with her about offering her this task."

"But she's just a baby."

"Already she can kill a Were, and with my blood in her, she will have greater strength than Compton can give her."

"You would do that?"

"I would do anything to ensure your safety my lover. Will you think about taking my blood please?"

"I don't have to think about it Eric. I am honored that you would offer it."

"Good." He dropped his fangs with the gentle snap I was becoming so used to, and curled me into his chest, back to front so that he could wrap his arms around me. I heard the pop of him biting into his own flesh; it was a sound I did not think I would ever get used to, then he pressed his wrist to my lips.

"Drink my lover." And I did, listening to gentle moans escaping his own lips, feeling the clutch of his arm tighten around me, and feeling the rise of his arousal pressing against my back.

I played my tongue over the wound even as I pulled the blood into my mouth. It didn't taste at all like the metallic sharpness of a poked finger or cut lip, it really was more like cream, but almost savory. I don't really have a good description beyond that.

I felt him begin to move his hips against me, grinding against my bare skin. I pushed myself back against him and after only a few minutes of drinking I felt the shudder flow across his body and the warmth of his orgasm as he cried out quietly. I felt amazing just then, absolutely amazing.

"Will I ever be able to sense your feelings Eric?"

His voice was back down to the self-satisfied purring of nearing exhaustion, "The longer we are together, the more blood we exchange, it will bring it on for us both."

"Then drink my lover." And I offered him my neck.


	18. Chapter 18

Keep the kind words coming they are like fae blood to my vampyre soul.

Merick

Chapter Eighteen

He was hidden away in the guest room when I awoke. His clothes neatly folded on the bed, his toiletries arranged on the dresser and in the bathroom as comfortably as if they had always been there. It made me happy to see them, my house had been too quiet for too long, unless you counted the Mary Ann episode, which I didn't. Even if it wasn't a completely human presence it was comfortable.

I showered, dressed, ate, as normal, and since I was working the lunch shift I made my quick call to Alcide before getting in my new car. His voice mail picked up, of course, he was probably deep into work by then being near to eleven in the morning.

"Hi Alcide, it's just Sookie here. Just wanted to hear about last night, I hope you're okay after everything. Give me a call if you get a chance, and please take care of yourself. Uh, bye." I was lousy at leaving messages, course I wasn't much better in person either. I could get so tongue-tied trying not to say the wrong thing, especially in front of the supernaturals. It was getting easier though. Maybe it was all the old blood in me?

I grabbed up the keys to the Mercedes, knowing that if I didn't take it that Eric would be upset, only it wasn't a key on the ring, it was some kind of odd looking fob. It took me a minute to sort out which slot I was supposed to stuff it into, but I did figure it out, and fortunately the start button was clearly labeled. With a push the engine roared to life, and honestly, by roared I really mean more like purred to life, it was so lovely and quiet, not at all like my old hatchback that fairly rumbled down the highway. By the end of my driveway I decided that I really liked the car, ostentatious as it was. It stopped on a dime and drove like a dream and felt like a tank around me: another happy feeling for that morning.

The rain of the night before had washed off most of the mud Eric had accumulated, but it didn't take long to recoat it to my liking along the country roads, and by the time I pulled into Merlotte's it did look an awful lot like the other cars in Bon Temps, at least enough that when I parked it beside Lafayette's it wasn't the one you noticed.

"Morning Sam! Morning Arlene!" I called as I came in the back door and went right to Sam's office to stow my purse and grab up my apron.

"Hi Sook!" Came Sam's response, but Arlene mustn't have heard me, I think she was in the bathroom.

"Sistah? Just what the hell did you drive up in?" Damn, Lafayette must have seen me, curse the smoke breaks.

"Just trying out a new car for a bit Lafayette." I tried to play it down. He pulled me into the kitchen,

"You ain't doing anythin' you ain't supposed to be doing is yah Sookie?"

"No Lafayette, nothing at all." Unless of course you counted sleeping with the Sherriff of Area 5.

"Better not be. So, can I guess where it came from then?"

"Same place as yours I imagine." I nipped out of the kitchen before he could come up with some other retort, and joined Sam in the bar, to start setting up the tables.

"You got home okay then Sookie?"

"No problems at all Sam."

"Jessica called me after you dropped her off, said Bill was going to make sure you made it."

What? Bill had followed me home? Bloody hell. I plastered a smile on my face to keep from joining Arlene in the bathroom: throwing up by the sounds of it. He would have seen Eric; I wondered why Eric hadn't mentioned seeing him? Maybe he hadn't, maybe Bill had arrived after we'd gone inside? Oh God, that might have been worse, if he'd heard us? Damn, damn, damn!

"He didn't need to do that." I muttered.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing Sam, yes the drive was no problem at all."

"Won't ever be again with that new car." Came Lafayette's voice as he rounded the corner from the hallway to behind the bar with a tray full of cut up limes and lemons. Bloody hell again!

"New car?"

"Just for awhile Sam, till the whole terrorist vampire thing blows over."

"You need a new car, that's good." And nonchalant Sam went back to unloading the dishwasher and drying off the glassware. I shot the dirtiest glance I could back at Lala. He smiled at me, with one corner of his lips turned up and disappeared.

The lunch crowd started up at eleven thirty which kept me busy enough to avoid thinking about what Bill might or might not have seen or heard, and if Eric had kept it from me. Of course it didn't even dawn on me just then what he might have been able to feel from what was left of our bond, or I surely would have joined Arlene in the bathroom.

By the time I got home that night I was tired. What had started out as a happy day had disintegrated with Lala's teasing, my worries about Bill and the sad look on Jessica's face from the minute she'd come in to work. She and Holly were closing, and it kind of annoyed me that she wouldn't talk to me about whatever was wrong the whole time she was there. I tried to rationalize that she was just embarrassed about trying to get Bill and I back together again on the drive home, or maybe that Bill had gone out to chase after me, and returned sour because I hadn't invited him in, or whatever such story he might have made up for her. Or maybe he'd told her the truth, that I'd been with someone else, and that that someone was Eric Northman. I hated not being able to read Vamp's sometimes. The only good thing about coming home was the presence of lights on in my house and the sounds of someone moving about; someone I expected to be Eric.

I unlocked the back door and pushed it open into the kitchen. Eric was at my stove stirring something in a pot. He turned around with a huge grin on his face.

"Hi honey, how was work?" It would have been funny in a 1950's sitcom sort of way if he'd been wearing more than a pair of jeans; a low cut, riding on his hips, tight, yummy pair of faded jeans. "Did the car drive well?"

"Oh God Eric." I'd really have to come up with a better line eventually, but it worked for then. "I did not have a great day."

"Well pull up a chair and tell me all about it." He took the pot off the stove and ladled something that looked like stew into a bowl for me. At that point it was comical, and I laughed.

"What? You don't believe I can cook? I did look after myself on hunting raids for a number of years you know?" I kept laughing.

"Just eat." He took me gently around the shoulders and steered me down to the kitchen table, where I did have to admit, his stew smelled pretty good.

"What is it?" Perhaps I shouldn't have asked.

"Rabbit."

"Please tell me you didn't just catch it."

"Oh no." He smirked, "I caught it about two hours ago." All I could do was shake my head; it was hard not to feel an emotional lightness just then. It was blissfully normal in an odd juxtaposed kind of way, and probably as normal as my life was ever going to get. The stew was good. The taste of his lips was better.

"Now tell me what happened today Sookie?"

"How much time do you have?" I half meant it as serious, knowing he'd be going home soon, half to express how much stuff I had to unload.

"A few hours, then I had better get back to Fangtasia before Pam comes hunting for me."

"Did you see Bill here last night, before I got home?"

"No, why?"

"You promise?"

"Of course I do Sookie." I looked at me across the kitchen table, concern crossing his face. "I have promised you that I will always tell you the truth, even if doing so will cause you pain. You deserve that from me Sookie. Please trust that." I smiled and nodded, feeling reassured by the sincerity on his face.

"Jessica told Sam that Bill was going to make sure I got home safely after I dropped her off, I wondered if he'd followed me?"

"The rain was very heavy last night, it might not have been too difficult to hide himself, but I'm confident that I would have noticed. Are you certain he was here?"

"No, I'm not Eric, and Jessica was in such a sullen mood she hardly said two words to me."

"Did you want me to go and speak with Bill?"

"No, I'm happy enough to just leave it be for now."

"It could be he came by after we were already inside, I was somewhat distracted then."

I sighed.

"Then he'll know what's happened between us."

"Likely." Eric paused thoughtfully for a moment. "You have rescinded his invitation into your house haven't you?"

"Not yet. Do I have to do it in front of him to make it effective?"

"I shouldn't think so. Would you consider doing it right now?"

"Why Eric, just last night you were saying that you might need to call on him to protect me?"

"What you've said, about Bill, about Jessica, has me concerned Sookie, if I may be honest. With the losses he has suffered recently, his maker, you, and his subterfuge being revealed much to his chagrin, I am concerned for his stability. Besides the fact that he holds no friendship with me, my being here might cause him worse distress."

"All right." I was feeling nervous all of a sudden, I'd never actually considered that Bill might hurt me, on purpose at least. I stood up, trembling just a little. Eric stood with me. "If I go out on the porch and just say it out loud will that be enough?"

"I expect it will."

"Come with me?"

"Of course." He took my hand, but let me lead him out to the porch, where I stood for a moment in the chill of the night. His hands on my shoulders didn't make me feel any warmer, but they did give me confidence to replace the substance of my own that I had lost.

"Bill Compton." I spoke out to the forest that separated our homes. "I rescind my invitation for you to enter my house as of now." It felt like I should make some kind of magical wave to make it stick, but I didn't, I just stared out into the blackness wanting to see him there, and wanting him to see me with Eric, just so he knew I was protected.

"Come back inside, you're shivering my lover." I don't know if Eric used that epithet to make me feel squishy inside, or because he knew that Bill was there, and would hear it. I didn't ask him any more questions that night about that.


	19. Chapter 19

Welcome to October, after 47,000 hits last month I am craving more. I hope you enjoy my take on these characters. Do let me know what you think if you get a second, and thank you to you all for coming back to read.

Cheers,

Merick

Chapter Nineteen

The news broke over the lunch hour the following day. Human broadcasters interrupted their 'regularly scheduled programming' with newly obtained footage, and everyone in the bar was rapt with attention at the teaser.

'Vampire terrorist killed trying to evade law enforcement'

When I had joked to Pam that Vampires should go into the movie business I'd been kidding, but I could see right then that my suggestion as to their talent hadn't been that far off the mark. If I hadn't known better, because I'd had the true story from Eric, burns and all, I would have likely fallen hook, line and sinker for the grainy, jerky footage that followed the announcer's preamble.

"In a video made available to all media outlets, the Vampire terrorist and murderer Russell Edgington is seen attempting to flee law enforcement officials sent to detain him. For all our viewers we warn you that the following footage may be considered graphic by some." Now if that wasn't the way to train every eye in the nation on their screens I didn't know what would be.

The footage rolled from the still shot that had been hovering behind the announcer's head on the screen. It looked as though it had been shot by a vest-mounted camera like some police forces used. The other police in the shots looked a great deal like SWAT officers to my Hollywood trained eye, but I suspected they were the V-Feds Eric had spoken of. There was great chaos in the shot, as the officer with the camera appeared to be in pursuit of someone.

That someone came into view, at first unfocused, but quickly sharpened and it made me shiver. It was Russell Edgington, or as close a facsimile as the producer of the video could obtain. I didn't know if it was an actor in makeup, or CGI, but he looked absolutely real.

I won't go into great detail about the substance of the clip, I'm sure you can imagine it. Darkened alley, Russell running, cops pursuing, all the right lines called out; 'surrender', 'we're here under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security', 'down on the ground', with the assorted nasty responses from Russell, teeth bared, bloody face. Ultimately he turns to attack the officers, and gets a few good shots in, more blood, screaming, until he is shot, presumably with silver or wooden bullets and falls to the ground as the tape cuts out before the ultimate 'goo-ification'.

At the bar there were a few outbursts, mostly silent nods though: as akin to a 'hoo-yeah' as Bon Temps got that early in the day. But there was a communal sigh of relief, which I felt as much as heard. And now that the news was out I waited for the ramifications.

The announcer came back on apologizing that the clip had been cut short; so apparently the final demise had been captured on tape, but edited for the faint of heart ladies watching their afternoon stories. He continued to speak, saying that a written press release had been received from the American Vampire League once again denouncing Russell's crimes, and their satisfaction with the final outcome despite their intention that he be brought to face American justice in a court of law. Apparently there was to be a longer interview that evening, probably with Nan Flanagan again since she seemed to do all the American interviews.

"Well isn't that something Sook?" Tara's voice pulled my attention from the television; she was back behind the bar.

"Sure is." My response to the clip was decidedly more muted than hers. It wasn't hard to hear the hatred she still felt towards the Vampires, not that I blamed her a bit.

"One less bloodsucker to worry about." Tara muttered, sounding decidedly pleased with things. She went to draw up a pitcher of beer for Jason's crew who had obviously determined that it was an appropriate time to signal for another now that the news clip was over. I could see her trying to smile at him, but Jason was still too nervous around her to return it properly. He was still feeling guilty over what had happened with Eggs. I think that Tara had decided that she'd have to forgive someone if she was ever going to start healing from everything that had happened to her, and since it sure as hell wasn't going to be a Vampire it might just as well be Jason.

On my afternoon break I tried calling Alcide again, since he hadn't called me back yet, but once again I got his voice mail.

'Hi Alcide, Sookie again.' as if he'd forgotten the sound of my voice already, silly.

'I just saw the news; I hope everything is going okay for you; I got worried when I didn't hear from you after last night. Call me when you can, okay? I just want to make sure you're all right. Bye.'

I had another early night, so while Jessica still looked a bit on the miserable side when she came in I didn't get a chance to talk to her. Okay, truth was I could have spoken with her, but I didn't, I just wanted to go home and call Eric and find out what was happening now that the news was out. And I wanted to watch Nan on TV to see how the AVL was going to spin it all in their favor. I expected to see Rev. Newlin on the same interview, he'd been milking the whole Russell incident rather shamelessly for weeks and I was sure he'd get his say. Fortunately he was still prone to losing his cool, and I'd never seen Nan lose hers, and I figured it was good for a bowl of popcorn and a glass of milk.

So in my jammies I lay down on my couch, wrapped a blanket around myself and tuned into the show. It was much as I expected, Nan defending her people by citing Human terrorists and murderers by the dozen, expressing her sadness that Russell didn't have a public trial all the while Steve Newlin trying to cut her off to exclaim that he and his father had been right about Vampires all along and that if Humans didn't take this incident seriously that they would be making themselves targets for further attacks. Nan sat calmly through his tirades, and it even seemed that the moderator of the discussion was getting tired with Steve's rants, turning his microphone off a few times. Of course they weren't in the same room, I doubt even Nan's cool could have kept her from smacking Steve but good if he'd gotten in her face the way he was trying to do verbally. At least I would have if I'd been there. After fifteen minutes or so Steve was repeating himself, probably because he'd run out of his rehearsed lines, and Nan was starting to look politely bored. I shut them off, and feeling pretty tired wandered back to my bed. I took my cell phone with me and after crawling under the covers I dialed my 'lover' and snuggled into the pillows without him.

"Good Evening Sookie." His voice sounded so smooth and measured, not rushed or harried, even though I knew that he was probably very busy just then.

"Hi Eric."

"You've been watching the news today have you?"

"Yes, I just turned off Nan and Steve and came to bed." There was a pause on the other end of the line, I suppose a human might have drawn in a breath, but Eric was well beyond those niceties of mainstreaming. It was simply quiet.

"I wish I was there with you." He whispered.

"I do too." I, being mostly human, and a bit fairy did sigh. "Now that the news is out how are things?"

"We will see in the coming days. Of course you know not to speak of the story I told you and Pam don't you?"

"Not a word Eric, I promise."

"The cleanup at Fangtasia is well underway and we'll be open again on Friday. Pam has appreciated my presence, she seems a little more her happy self again." I snickered into the phone. Pam was not a 'happy self', ever. Eric's laughter joined mine, God it was beautiful and strong, and it made me miss him even more. "Oh, and Yvetta quit."

"Why?" Yvetta was one of Eric's dancers, I'd seen altogether too much of Yvetta one evening when I'd interrupted Eric and her in the basement. Begging for help again to find Bill as I recalled, but I'd burst in to interrupt him so many times I was losing track, it was embarrassing. Course the view of Eric's rear was not a memory I minded having.

"When I told her there was going to be no more sex she got angry. Accused me of several nasty things that even I wouldn't do." He chuckled again. "I yelled, she left, Pam is interviewing new dancers tomorrow." He was so nonchalant. And secretly I liked that Pam was doing the interviewing, I still harbored a bit of jealousy about the other women in Eric's life, but I was working on it.

"Sorry?"

"No you're not." I yawned in response, not wanting to try to dig myself out of that hole. "You're tired my Lover, I should let you sleep."

"I miss you." Sleep made me honest and a little free with my emotions.

"I miss you too, I will see you soon Sookie, I promise."

"I know." The two of us hung on the line for another moment, not saying anything, a pregnant pause I think it's called.

"Good night Sookie."

"Good night darling." I'd hung up the phone before it occurred to me exactly what I'd said, but it felt okay in my chest, so I fell asleep.


	20. Chapter 20

Thanks for your patience all. I wrote and rewrote this one a half dozen times; it's been sitting in my head practically since the second chapter. I hope you think it was worth it.

Cheers,

Merick

Chapter Twenty

Friday evening at the bar was busy, like most Friday evenings were. Paychecks were in and almost no one had to be up early the next morning. There was a crowd around the billiard tables and Holly and I were weaving our way through the bodies trying to get drinks to everyone. Lala had made up a pot of gumbo; the special of the day, and so the rich smell of spices wafted through the whole establishment. Football on the TV, music on the jukebox; no dancing, it was Sam's rule, and general good ol' boy laughter and you'd have almost thought the whole world was back to normal.

I'd finally heard from Alcide, well, I'd gotten a voicemail while I'd been working; I checked when I got a break. He was as cryptic as I was.

'Hi Sookie, everything's fine, just so you know. Things have been busy, but your head's up sure helped out a lot. We'll talk in person soon. Bye.'

Well at least he was still alive, that was good. And I guess he couldn't say too much about the culling on the phone. I didn't call him back; I didn't want to give him the wrong impression anyways. I could be friendly, without being obnoxious, or sounding like there was more to my inquiries than there was.

I'd had some of those pregnant pauses with Alcide, where we kind of looked at each other, not saying anything, mentally willing the other person to do something. 'Course neither of us had, and maybe that was for the best. We both had skeletons in our closets, and a couple still walking around.

Jessica was looking even more miserable that day, and even though I was wary about getting myself caught up in her issues, I made a point to talk to her, at least casually as the evening wore on. It was only when I asked how her plans with Hoyt were going that she fell apart and I ended up feeling about two inches tall.

"It isn't happening." She sniffled, after dabbing at her blood tears with a black handkerchief.

"What? Did you and Hoyt have a fight?"

"No. I can't talk about it right now. Could you maybe give me a ride home Sookie, then I promise I'll explain it all to you."

"Course hon." I said it before really thinking about it, and then it was too late. Oh well, I thought to myself, what's the worse that could happen? I'll just stay in the car, Eric had seemed confidant it would be secure enough.

"I'm really sorry Sookie, about the other night." We'd left Lala and Holly to do the final close, they were getting on really well; besides, there was this 'gentleman' who'd been hanging around most of the evening, waiting on Lafayette, and since he didn't see the need to introduce us, I didn't see the need to offer extra help. I think the anxiety of possibly seeing Bill again was making me a bit petty.

"What do you mean Jessica?"

"About trying to get you to come and see Bill, and talk to him again."

"It's okay Jess, I know you care about Bill, it's only natural you'd want him to be happy. He's your maker and all. I know about the bond thing." I tried to sound knowledgeable about Vampire stuff, it helped to calm the butterflies.

"Yeah, he's my maker and all, that's why I had to ask you." She sniffled a bit and dabbed at her eyes again. "He told me to do it."

"He forced you?"

"I didn't have a choice, I had to obey him, but I really didn't want to." Now that revelation made the butterflies a little angrier.

"And I bet this has something to do with you and Hoyt doesn't it?"

"He won't let me go Sookie."

"Tell me." I slowed the car down and finally pulled over so she'd have as much time to talk as she needed to.

"The night of the storm, after I got in the house I told Bill what you'd said, about calling him. I guess I made it sound more positive than it really was, I'm sorry, I just didn't want him to be upset any more. He's been pining for you for weeks."

"Ever since we broke up?"

"Even longer, so he just really latched on to the glimmer of hope I gave him I guess." She sounded so hesitant to repeat the story to me, but she found the courage to at least give me the truth. "He decided to go past your place, just to make sure you made it home safely. He was gone for a couple of hours so I figured you'd let him in and that you guys had talked, and that things would be better. By the time he got home Hoyt was there, not that we were doing anything, but Hoyt was being all gentlemanly like and he stood up when Bill came in, and point blank asked him for my hand."

"Oh Jess." I could just imagine Hoyt doing that all proper like, probably trembling in his boots the whole time.

"Bill got angry, told Hoyt to leave, and said that my place was with him, not some human boy who barely knew how to look after himself, let alone a vampire."

I let out a deep breath.

"I don't know what I'm going to do Sookie. I tried to tell Bill that it didn't mean I was leaving him, and that I still wanted to learn from him, but he just got angrier and angrier. I haven't dared ask him again, I don't want him to force me to do something terrible, like break up with Hoyt or quit my job." The tears rolled down her cheeks then; Vampires crying made a hell of a mess, not that I was thinking that at the time.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" I couldn't believe I was saying it, and I should never have offered it, but I did.

"Oh Sookie, he'd listen to you, I just know he would." I had my doubts he would listen to any advice I had for him, but screwing up my courage, and the angry little monarchs in my gut I agreed to do it. Stupid mistake.

Jessica got out of the car first; Bill was on the porch, waiting on her, and eyeing my car with a hooded glare, head not moving, just the black pupils scanning it up and down. I shut off the engine and got out of my side.

"Thank you for bringing Jessica home." He turned to follow her into the house practically dismissing me.

"Bill wait. Can we talk?" I watched his shoulders stiffen then forcibly relax. I took the few steps up to the porch and waited as he turned to face me. I could see something in his eyes, maybe hope, maybe apprehension I didn't know.

"What is it Sookie?" I knew he wanted his voice to be the soft southern rhythm that had seduced me, but I could just hear the tense undertones threatening the mask.

"I wanted to talk to you about Jessica."

"Is there a problem at work?"

"No, of course not, I think Sam is really pleased to have Jessica there. It's about Hoyt."

"I do not think that matters with Hoyt and Jessica are really any of your business Sookie." The tension in his voice became more obvious.

"If you're worried about his intentions I can tell you that I've known him my whole life, and there isn't a nicer, more decent man in all of Bon Temps."

"Your opinion of him really doesn't mean all that much to me Sookie." Ouch, that hurt.

"I'm just saying, he really loves Jessica, and I know how much she loves him. And I know he'd take good care of her if you would just give them your blessing."

"Sookie." Now he was speaking to me as if I was a child. "Think about this. If a young man came to your door, who'd only been dating your eighteen year old daughter for a few months would you give her your blessing to go off and marry him? Jessica is my child, and my responsibility."

When he put it that way I could see his point, but I guess I wasn't done trying to push mine.

"But Jessica isn't the typical teenager Bill."

"No, she's far more complex than that Sookie."

"I'm just saying that I think maybe you're being unreasonable."

"Are you now? I think perhaps you had best leave Sookie." The twisted grin on his face as he spoke should have been my first clue, I should have left, really I should have just gotten in my car and driven away but I didn't, and that was just plain dumb. And what I said next really ranked up there with the most stupid things ever.

"How old was your wife when you married her?"

"She was nineteen when I began to court her and twenty when we married." I should have seen him clenching his jaws. "But I was well settled, with land, and a home and a good income from my farm, and slaves to help around the house. Hoyt is hardly as well off as I was, and it certainly hasn't been a year yet." His voice became sharper with each word.

"But he does have a job, and he has put money down on a house, and is going to renovate it so Jessica with have a safe place during the day. Besides, you didn't see a problem with asking me to marry you after we'd been together only a few months."

"And as I recall you ran off to the bathroom in tears when I did ask." He was just about at the point of spitting out the words. I should have stopped.

"I came back, ready to say yes, but the Were's had taken you, and I searched for you because I loved you. But things happened."

"As they seem to around you Sookie. I think you should leave."

"Bill?" I was kind of pleading with him.

"Go home Sookie! I do not want your advice! Crawl back into Eric's bed and forget about my affairs!" Ah hell, he'd seen, or heard us, crap. I should have run, but I have Gran's stubbornness in me and I was tired of being a victim, and I honestly never thought Bill would really hurt me.

"Eric?" It was Jessica's little voice, obviously shocked.

"Yes Jessica," he addressed her while still looking at me, the blackness in his eyes growing. "Sookie has been f**king Eric Northman. Did you even wait till you'd broken up with me Sookie before spreading your legs for him?"

I was astounded that his words could be so cruel and so graphic. I was absolutely dumbstruck as I felt my own anger building to match his.

"You have no right to criticize me Bill Compton." I managed to stutter out finally as the coal black eyes tried to bore under my skin. "You broke up with me first, you slept with Lorena!" I couldn't even bring myself to use the term he'd used. I might not have been much of a lady, but I really tried not to cuss if I didn't have to.

"Maybe that's how you earned that fancy car then, on your back?"

I hauled off and slapped him. Yet another of the dumb moves for that evening. He took a step back from me at first, probably shocked that I'd even tried that, and then advanced on me again. I put my hands up in front of my chest, because now his fangs were drawn and I was afraid that he'd hurt me.

"You are nothing but a whore Sookie Stackhouse!" I felt the anger bubbling in me, because he had no right to say those things! I hadn't cheated on him, ever, not even when the opportunity presented itself with Alcide, a warm, loving man who was decent to me after Bill had cruelly broken up with me over the phone. He took another step towards me and I pushed out against his chest with my palms, intending to force him away from me, but the anger and fear I had in my heart manifested itself with the same bursts of light I had first seen in Alcide's apartment when Russell's Were tried to grab me. They threw Bill back a good ten feet, knocking him to the wooden slats of the veranda.

He sprang to his feet and launched himself at me with a roar I hope I never hear again, grabbing me around the throat with both hands, crushing me against one of the pillars that held up the portico. Right then I was afraid. It didn't help that Jessica started screaming either.

"Is this what it comes to Bill?" I tried to say as he cut off my voice. "You say you love me but you're going to kill me?" His grip only tightened and the periphery of my vision began to go black. I knew I was going to pass out soon and fear rushed through me in a cold wave.

"Take your hands off her Bill!" The command was just as cold as my fear, but far more empowered. Eric.

"Sookie is mine!" I heard Bill answer.

"I belong to Eric." I croaked out. I knew the power of the words, I had spat them at Eric enough times; 'I'm Bill's'. Magically it had meant that Eric couldn't or wouldn't touch me, and I was going to use every bit of magic I had at my disposal right then, as distasteful as the words were.

"If you don't let her go I will eviscerate you where you stand." The venom behind the words was serious even though the tone remained even, and I felt Bill's grasp slacken just enough that I could draw in a breath. It sounded pretty bad when I did.

"It's a crime to kill another vampire. The magister will have your head if you spill my blood over a human."

"Funny that Bill. With the unfortunate death of the previous magister the Authority has seen fit to appoint me to the post for this region; for my exemplary service to my people." I felt Bill's grasp loosen again. "And I have a feeling that the verdict would go in my favor." It almost looked as though he was going to laugh at that point. And Bill finally dropped his hands. I staggered away from him, rubbing my throat; Jessica rushed to my side as I went down on my knees.

"You know that I have power over every vampire in this region now Bill, not even your Queen can protect you."

"Then I have nothing to lose by killing you." And he dove for Eric, teeth bared.

"You are an idiot Bill Compton." And with a side step too fast for me to see, Eric pivoted, drove his hand down on Bill's throat and pinned him to the ground, kneeling over him, fangs dropped, hissing.

"Jessica." Bill called out; she turned to him as if compelled.

"You cannot force your child to her death Bill, she will not attack me." I could see the strain in Jessica's muscles, knowing to come to Bill's aid would be suicide, but feeling the pull from her maker that she could not ignore.

"Do you really want to do something so foolish Bill? Do you want your death to be the last memory your child has of you?"

"Do it!" Bill spat at Eric.

"You obstinate fool." I watched his grip tighten.

"No Eric, please, don't kill him." I spoke for Jessica and for myself.

"Jessica, put Sookie in the car and take her home."

"I command you to stay Jessica!" The poor girl looked as though she were being tossed about, hardly in control of her own muscles.

"Release Jessica, take a step towards your own redemption or I will kill you and give her her freedom myself!"

Bill looked towards the two of us, and finally I began to see some kind of resignation in his eyes. The truth of his loss was finally hitting him, the truth that everything that had happened to him, was happening to him was his own doing. And that thought was ripping at him inside.

"Go Jessica, I release you." He moaned it, and I could see the red beginning to rim his eyes.

"Take Sookie and go Jessica." Eric didn't look at either of us as he spoke. Jessica hauled on my arm, forcing me to stand.

"Eric please!" I begged, no more deaths because of me, I'd prayed for that and I just didn't want this to be my fault, not another one.

"Sookie belongs to you now Eric, I will not touch her." Eric finally released his grip on Bill, allowing him to stand again, finally, but he never took his eyes off of him.

"Sookie belongs to no one but herself." He said quietly, and then came to where Jessica had pulled me down the three porch steps. "Get in the car ladies." He added "please" as an afterthought. "We're leaving." He never once looked back at Bill, though Jessica did, blood tears streaming down her pale cheeks. Against her red hair and blue eyes she looked the epitome of misery.

"I'll come back to see you soon Bill, I promise." She sobbed. Bill simply slumped back to the ground, and buried his head in his hands. I honestly did not know if he would survive the night. We'd taken everything from him, and I felt sick; not just because of the bruises, or the lack of oxygen, but for having pretty much killed him myself.


	21. Chapter 21

Thank you for your comments on the last chapter, I have tried to take them to heart as I crafted this next installment. Enjoy these characters as I play with them.

Merick.

Chapter Twenty-One

Eric drove quickly, and in a silence, punctuated only by the sniffling of his two female passengers. I didn't know what to feel exactly; anger at Bill, or hatred, or pity, miserable for Jessica who had lost and won in the last few minutes, or fear of Eric, who I suspected was not well pleased with me getting myself into another avoidable life or death situation.

I went up the steps to my house first, followed by Jessica and then the heavy footfalls from Eric. I turned to them both when I got to the door, but before I could even invite them in Eric began to speak.

"Go inside Sookie, get yourself cleaned up, I need to speak with Jessica for a few minutes." It didn't occur to me to argue, I listened; only asking Jessica if she wanted me to call Hoyt to come get her. She nodded yes and whispered a thank you, head down, waiting, it seemed to be admonished by Eric for her part in the actions of the night. I went inside, and straight to the kitchen to phone Hoyt who sounded relieved and anxious at the sound of my voice. Then I went to my bedroom to examine the damage Bill had done to my throat. I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, the bright lights accentuating the violent colors. It was bad. The bruises were blooming like purple clouds, almost all the way around my neck. The anger behind the marks made me shiver again and I turned away from the mirror and began to strip down, just wanting to get into the shower and wash away the last traces of Bill Compton from my body and my mind.

The shower wasn't peaceful, not at all. Bending my neck was starting to hurt, and the warm water didn't clear anything from my thoughts at all. I couldn't relax until I knew what Eric was going to do, or say, and I desperately hoped that he wouldn't just leave without even seeing me, though maybe I deserved it for being an idiot. When I stepped out of the shower he still wasn't in the house, but going back into the living room in my terry robe I could hear his voice on the porch, talking to someone else, who turned out to be Hoyt. He was telling him everything he needed to do to secure his house for Jessica, and he was giving both of them his private cell number. I heard Hoyt's truck start up finally, and then drive off and I waited to see if Eric would come in, unmoving, tucked into a corner of the couch, eyes fixed on the door.

It opened slowly, I was sure Eric was weighing his options of what he was going to say to me. He never did anything without a plan, unless I forced him into it. I imagined how angry he must have been with me then.

"I'm so sorry Eric." I said as he came in all the way and closed the door behind himself, locking it with without looking at it. He said nothing in response. And I could just see his eyes betraying the turmoil of the thoughts in his head. 'You should be sorry.' I wished so hard just then that he could have simply said it to me and gotten it out of his system and out of my fears because then at least I could have started to breathe properly again. He took a few steps towards me. I stayed motionless. A few more to stand in front of me, and I just followed him with my eyes, waiting.

The expression on his face, of neutral contemplation never changed as he reached down, grasped me around the shoulders and stood me up as if I was nothing more than a doll. I knew I was trembling, he knew it too, and he knew I was afraid, just as he'd known when he'd come to me at Bill's. Hands still clutching my shoulders he pulled my body forward into his and forced his mouth down over mind, harder than he had ever done before, grinding his lips against mine so hard I thought they would be as bruised as my neck. I could hardly draw in a breath because of the pressure he had against me, and when his hands, leaving my arms, tore open my bathrobe I barely had time to think of what it all meant before I found myself weightless and then laid on the floor of my living room. He was moving at superhuman speed, still not saying a word as he slipped out of his jeans and forced himself into my body so hard and so deep that I cried out. Only then did he slow down, just enough to draw out the thrusts to watch my body convulse for him, arching and moaning out loud, which still did not bring a smile to his face or sound to his lips. It was only when I knew that he was about to reach his peak that he did finally call out, in a rough growl just as I felt his heat begin to flood inside me.

"You are mine Sookie Stackhouse!" And then the orgasm took him, and he threw his head back and he was so beautiful to me. It took him only a moment to recover, fueled by the adrenaline and anger in his system and he kept his body atop and within mine, both were still hard and unyielding.

"I asked you to stay away from him." His tone was not quite angry, but still strong and commanding of respect. "I told you I feared for your safety." The words spilled out more quickly than I could answer them, or offer more apologies. "Now I demand a vow from you that you not go near him again. You must swear it to me Sookie or I will leave, because I cannot allow myself to love you if I cannot protect you always." I hardly heard the words; I was so desperate for the chance to tell him I was sorry again.

"I promise you Eric, I will not go near him again, I will not see him, or speak to him, nothing. I am so sorry." He thrust himself forward into me deeply causing another cry from me, which he stifled with his mouth, crushing my lips again in his passions.

"You are mine Sookie Stackhouse, just as much as I am yours." He dropped his fangs and I pushed my own lips towards his mouth that time, raking my tongue against the points to bring the blood into both our mouths as we kissed again, over and over as his thrusts brought me to my own orgasm.

When he picked me up off the floor and carried me back to the bedroom I was awash in a mixture of relief and my own passions. I made no move to cover myself when he lay me on the quilt, and for his part he pulled off his shirt and came to hover over me again, naked, body glistening, a look made even more ethereal by his porcelain skin.

"I am so sorry I put you in danger again Eric." He began to laugh at me, still hovering over my recumbent body on the bed.

"Danger?" Don't be silly Sookie. I am eight hundred years older than him. I could have killed Bill Compton as easily as I took him to the ground, and perhaps I should have, or may yet still." He mused, completely serious. "The only one there that he could have killed was you." I nodded, feeling every bit as foolish as my face betrayed.

"You must stop trying to help every stray puppy who comes to your door looking for your help Sookie." I tried to smile at him, remembering he'd shown up on my doorstep too. He seemed to understand the vision I was having.

"I look nothing like a stray puppy thank you very much." No, you certainly don't Eric, I thought to myself. "And I didn't come for your help, I came here so that I would not have to die alone." Seemed like some kind of help to me, but I kept quiet. At least the truth of his words finally made us both smile together.

"It was dumb, I just really didn't think Bill would ever hurt me Eric, not after everything I did for him, after everything he said."

"Bill Compton is a confidence man Sookie. And you need to see him for that. He may still be a threat to you, despite what he has said tonight." I thought about that, and the other things Eric had said.

"What does it mean that you are a Magister now Eric?"

"It means that I have power to preside over Vampire courts and mete out justice to vampires as per our laws. But it does not make me invincible, as the death of our previous Magister demonstrates, and it does not make you invulnerable. It is a help, and I sincerely hope that the more powerful of our kind will find you less appealing now, knowing that justice for their actions will come more swiftly for having harmed you than it might have in the past. But those who object to my rulings may use you as revenge against me; it is a double-edged sword, and that is why I must know that you understand that you must continue to be vigilant Sookie."

"I do Eric. Really I do." He pulled me into his arms and muttered in a not unkind manner.

"That remains to be seen Sookie."

"You were supposed to be opening Fangtasia tonight weren't you?"

"Yes."

Oh man, if there needed to be another reason for Pam to hate me I'd provided it.

"Was it going alright before you had to leave?" I kind of scrunched up my shoulders and withdrew a bit sheepishly as I asked.

"Before I had to come rescue you again you mean?"

"Yes."

"Quite well actually, thanks for asking. It seems that the humans were really just looking for a good excuse to like vampires again. The new dancers have probably helped." He'd said that to get even with me, I just knew it.

"Well then, I guess you're wanting to get back?"

"Not really wanting, no. And I can't leave you in this condition here. I don't like the look of the bruises on you Sookie."

"They'll heal."

"Faster with my blood." I wasn't about to say no, and I had secretly hoped he'd rescue me from having to try to disguise them for work Saturday. Again he pulled me to his chest as he sat, piercing his own wrist with his fangs and holding me to him as I drank. And again I felt the arousal growing, in us both, and not just physically, which was an amazing sensation for me. It was a glimmer of actually being able to read a vampire's mind. For the very first time I could sense something, vague as it was, from Eric, and the comfort of his mind being open to me, just a little filled me with a joy I could not describe.

I did not drink long, enough that I felt the discomfort of my throat beginning to ease and then I pulled away from Eric so that I could turn in his arms and straddle him for a time, capitalizing on the desires I felt from him, and felt in myself. I teased him just a bit as the smile on his face grew to the unabashed one I had come to love seeing; the one that was for moments of true happiness. And carefully I brought myself down over his body, taking the length of him into mine, gyrating there on top of him, all the while watching his eyes dart from my face, to my chest, to my hips before he finally allowed them to close to simply enjoy the sensations I was giving him.

I drew it out as long as I could, but it was so hard to restrain myself, simply looking at him, his body, his blissful expression made me want to bring him up as quickly as I could, just so he would match the passions building in me. When he brought his hands to my hips and began to guide me, rocking me up and down the rock hard center of his pleasure I knew his own time was short, as short as mine. I leaned forward, allowing him some control, which he took, furthering his pleasures with hard thrusts against me until we both came together, tensing and gasping, fighting for the comfort of each others arms and mouths until we could fight no longer.

"I am going to bring someone by for you to meet in the next few nights Sookie. Someone who I will call on to help watch your house when I have to be away seeing to the duties as a Magister."

"Will that be often?"

"Not with any luck, at least not for awhile. There are many political things to be sorted out over the next few weeks, which will hopefully translate to a relative calm as vampires find their new allegiances. But eventually I will need to go, and I need to assure myself that there will be someone here for when I cannot reach you quickly enough."

"Whatever you think is best Eric."

"I do like the way that sounds, we will have to practice that." I swatted him playfully.

"Go and tell Pam I'm sorry for pulling you away tonight."

"Oh, I'm sure she had a much better time without me there anyways. She always likes to sample the new dancers in her own ways." I shuddered.

"I'll miss you."

"I'll come back tomorrow, in the early morning, before sunrise and wake you."

"I look forward to it darling." See, I had remembered. The use of the word stopped him as he was searching for his discarded shirt on my bedroom floor. He turned to me with a most serious expression.

"Words are important to me Sookie; they always have been even if I seem to use so few of them at times. I take everything that you tell me, good or bad; straight to my heart, and hold it there. Please do not play with me in that way."

I let a little smile creep over my face as I looked at him in the ambient light, spilling in from the living room.

"I am yours Eric."

"I love you Sookie Stackhouse." And then he was gone.


	22. Chapter 22

Again I beg your forgiveness at the long interval between updates; real life came calling and wouldn't take no for an answer.

Please enjoy, and let me know what you think of our 'guest star'.

Cheers.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dichotomy, thinking back, it was the best word I could come up with to describe Eric Northman. It came from my word of the day calendar, back in February as I recall: two mutually exclusive halves of a whole, both parts opposites. Not that he was always that way, but as the days and weeks passed it became more obvious to me that there were two Erics; not in a dissociative kind of way, but a necessary one. When he was with me, alone, at my house, usually in my bedroom, he was soft, and gentle. He talked about feelings, and showed emotions. More than once, recovering in the glow of a mutual orgasm I caught him looking at me with a wonder in his eyes as if he could hardly believe I was real. Of course, most of the time I could hardly believe the same of him. He was beautiful, and loving, and he would touch me, like when he would draw the tips of his fingers down my bare skin so carefully acting as if I would break if he were too rough. But of course I didn't. And every morning he would tell me that he loved me before he left me, whether it was to his own home or to the hidden space in my guest room. And each morning, for many days he did not wait or pine on an answer from me, because it took me a great deal longer than him to admit, first to myself, and then to him, that I did love him. This was the private Eric, the one I saw, and made love with, who was mine alone; though I imagine Pam knew of him too, to a degree.

And then there was the other half of Eric, the half that everyone else saw. The Sherriff, the Magister, the owner of Fangtasia, and the thousand year old vampire who commanded respect without a word, with only the icy blue Nordic stare that made humans avert their gaze, and vampires question their motives. That Eric was certainly compelling, in a deeply sexual, feral sort of way, which was what drew so many people to him, men and women; just hoping that some of his power would rub off on them by being in proximity to him. He kept the two halves so very separate, and I knew why. Weakness was something he'd been raised to abhor, a king, a prince could show none of it lest it become a way to destroy him. Eric still thought along those lines, or at least part of him did, likely for very good and valid reasons. I couldn't profess to begin to understand the politics of being a vampire. The hidden subculture had developed its own rules over millennia of hiding in the shadows, and now, having 'come out of the coffin' so to speak, a whole new set of rules were required to win the trust the humans they now sought to openly co-exist with. Russell had broken those rules, and left a mess in his wake that was to take Eric from me for a time, a short time, helping to sort out much of it as it pertained to our little corner of the world.

He phoned me from his car, when he was about a half hour away from Bon Temps, to tell me he was bringing someone by for me to meet. He didn't have to ask, I knew it would be in a professional vein, and I dressed accordingly, and put on my quarter supernatural face, steeling myself for a business meeting of sorts. I really had no idea who was going to be showing up on my porch thirty minutes later.

I heard the car on my driveway; or rather I heard the crunching gravel, the car, identical to mine didn't make a lot of noise on its own. I waited for the knock on my door, trying to look like I hadn't been waiting anxiously since Eric's phone call, which of course I had been. With a good deep breath to steady myself I put on a collegial smile and opened the door. I hardly saw Eric for the presence of his companion.

His face was a little rounder than I'd remembered it, and the hands and belly a little pudgier; in a nice way I mean, but the hair, the jet black hair, still swept up in front and glistening from the pomade, well there was no mistaking that.

"Sookie Stackhouse, I'd like you to meet my friend Bubba."

Well, that explained the supermarket tabloids.

"Pleased to meet you Bubba." I felt a tightness in my chest, brought about by confusion, Eric's know-it-all grin, and my own excitement.

"Ma'am. The pleasure is all mine." Spoken by lips just a little on the large side of full, still pursed together in the trademark pout, with a head cocked only a bit to the right, voice unchanged from the specials we'd watched on TV with Gran; Jason and I, or Tara and I. I couldn't believe he was standing on my porch.

"Would you both like to come in?" I didn't hesitate to offer the invitation, after all, he was with Eric, and Eric would never have brought anyone to my house if he weren't absolutely convinced they would do me no harm.

"If it's just the same with you Ma'am, I'd sure like to stay outside, I like the night air and wide open spaces of it all."

"Of course, please have a seat." I motioned to the chairs on the porch, all the while trying to look sideways at the shit-eating grin on Eric's face. Sorry about the language, but it gets the point across.

"Sookie, I'm going to have to be away for a few days, for some meetings. I've asked Bubba to come out and watch over you and the house." Eric got right down to business.

I'd had a feeling that Bubba was here for just that reason, but I still really wanted to just start giggling every time I looked over at him, as he was absently surveying the land around my porch, or at least the part of the woods you could see. And I imagined he could see a great deal more than I could in the dark. Eric continued.

"Bubba knows to stop anyone or anything supernatural or otherwise from wandering too close to you and the house overnight while I'm gone."

"What about Jessica?" I was concerned that if she came by, which was a likely possibility, that Bubba might 'stop' her. I didn't enquire what that action might actually entail against a 'supe', but I had a feeling it involved a permanent solution.

"We've stopped to see her before coming here, Bubba will not harm her or Hoyt. Are there any other supernatural visitors you are expecting in the next few days?" Eric looked at me with raised eyebrows and the continued smirk.

"No, not invited ones anyways." I couldn't remember if Sam had revealed himself to any other vampires except Bill, or if Bill had mentioned it to Eric, so I thought I'd be better off just to let Sam know to stay away; not that he had a habit of coming out to visit anyways, but a warning to keep Tommy out of my woods was probably warranted. Alcide wasn't expected either, and as I hadn't heard more from him than the first and only voice mail I figured it was safe to assume he wouldn't be showing up at night.

"Good." Eric's voice held a lilt of good-natured jealousy, which was kind of endearing. Part of me was really comfortable being 'his', as odd as it must sound.

"Will Bubba be staying at the house then?" I asked.

"Miss Sookie?" Bubba began, "I'd feel better going to ground in your woods if you don't mind?" I looked at Eric, wanting his input in the matter, since I was certain he had a plan.

"Whatever makes you most comfortable Bubba, just so long as you keep Miss Sookie safe." Okay by me, he had the invitation to come in at any rate, if I did need him I figured, and it would be better if I didn't have to worry about running into him there since my habit of wandering about in my pj's at all hours might have made us both uncomfortable.

"Well thank you Mr. Eric, thank you very much. I'll just go have a wander around your property if I might Miss Sookie? Make sure I know where the Compton property is, and whatever else might be out there."

"Of course, and thank you Bubba. I feel safer already." I stuck out my hand to shake his in thanks, his grip was cold, like Eric's but soft and friendly feeling and I wasn't at all surprised when he brought it to his lips and kissed it.

"Ma'am. I'll leave you and Mr. Eric to your business then. Oh, you don't happen to have any feral cats around here anywhere do you Miss Sookie?"

"I imagine there's a few." There were enough barns about, and rodents to support the wandering felines so it seemed a reasonable assumption on my part I figured. Though I didn't want to know why he'd asked or what was the source of his smile when I responded in the affirmative. I watched him as he sort of lumbered over to the woods, with a few shuffle steps that almost looked like dancing, grinning finally. I turned immediately back to Eric.

"Is that El," he cut me off right there.

"In the house." He said nodding towards the door and ushering me through it quickly, looking over his shoulder as Bubba disappeared into the words. "His hearing is excellent." He closed the door, "Don't use his real name."

"Then it is?"

"Yes."

"Okay, you are going to have to tell me this story Eric." I plopped myself down on the couch in the living room, patting the seat beside me to invite him to join me.

"When he died his body was brought to the morgue, as it happened one of my kind was working there, one who was a fan of his." Eric began the story of Bubba.

I wanted to laugh, desperately, the only job more stereotypical for a vampire besides a morgue attendant had to be at a blood bank. It was absolutely ridiculous as far as I could see, but I managed to hold my amusement in check so Eric could continue.

"This person was able to tell fairly quickly that the human laying on his slab wasn't actually quite dead, certainly well beyond the assistance of our blood to heal him, but still with a spark. And for some reason he decided that he would rather give the man immortality by changing him, than to let him succumb to a final death. It was only after Bubba awoke, that he realized his error."

"And that was?"

"As far as we can understand it, the abuses and diseases that had brought Bubba to his mortal death had wreaked havoc on his mind as well as his body. The essence that had been the King was irretrievably damaged. Or perhaps, having been that close to death some part of his spirit or soul, or whatever we might choose to call it had gone on. I can't say." I loved the reverent tone of voice Eric was using just then and I loved to hear him muse about metaphysical things like the soul, like emotions, and like the universe we both inhabited. It made me appreciate him even more, and he made me feel important too, because he just assumed that I could grasp the concepts, which I could. He didn't treat me like a dumb blond or a dumb waitress like so many other folks did. Funny as it sounds to say it, I think he respected my mind as well as the rest of me. I liked being seen that way in his eyes, and I liked that we could talk that way, together. It felt more like a real relationship and not just sex.

"It was as if the person he had been resided only in that type of memory that sits just outside your ability to recall it."

"Frustrating." I knew that feeling, trying so hard to remember something important and not quite being able to get it into your conscious mind.

"Indeed. And for that very reason we are careful not to use his human name around him, or present him with things that will trigger the frustration of not being able to remember."

"Like asking him to sing?"

"Exactly. It doesn't mean that sometimes he doesn't just break into song like some familiar patterning, just like his speaking mannerisms. But he can become very angry if someone says or does the wrong thing around him."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"You had best do that. Bubba is a very effective vampire, even if his tastes are a little odd sometimes. Since his change we've taken great care to protect him, and he has been employed in the service and company of Kings, Queens and Sheriffs for many years. He takes orders very well, and is quite loyal, if not always easy to keep out of the spotlight. There have been some unfortunate, shall I say, escapes, and there always seems to be some human around somewhere to phone the tabloids."

At that I snickered I just couldn't help it.

"He will take good care of you Sookie. I promise you that."

"Thank you Eric, I really do feel better knowing he'll be around when you aren't. Now what is it you have to do? If you don't mind me asking?"

"Some claims have been brought forward on Russell's estate, which challenge Sophie Ann's inheritance from her now deceased husband. These claims need to be heard and judged, and several Sheriffs, members of the Authority and myself as the Magister, have been called to attend the proceedings." I loved that he had no hesitation in telling me his business. It was so refreshing to be treated like that. I tried hard not to think about how Bill, in his effort to 'protect me', and I use that term with a great deal of sarcasm, had treated me like a child so often, me being too blind to see it for what it was.

"Sounds interesting."

"Sadly I imagine it will be nothing more than petty bickering if I know the vampires involved well enough. It will be tedious but necessary, especially to get Sophie Ann off your track, and settled with another small fortune to spend."

"When do you leave?"

"Tomorrow evening, first thing."

"Then we have a few hours?"

"I'll have someone else pick up the car tomorrow, it'll be faster if I fly."

"Good." I snuggled into his arms and stole a kiss, which led to another and another, and the desired retirement to the bedroom.

One last thing Eric did before he left was to give me another gift. He first asked for my cellular phone, and at his vampire speed switched out the sim card into an iPhone, the first one I'd ever seen. He continued to grin, as we lay together wrapped in the messed up sheets of my bed, as he showed me how to turn on the camera so that we could see each other when we talked. He promised to call me every night as he rose, to see how my day had been while he was away, and intimated that I would be welcome to show him whatever I might want to at that time. I nixed that idea fairly quickly, though the thought of it made my heart flutter just a bit, especially getting a few photos of Eric posing for me. It was a lighthearted way to end our evening, or morning; I was never sure how to phrase that. He left me on the porch, waving to Bubba who I couldn't see out in the dark, but who I could hear, humming to himself, with a kiss and his whispered 'I love you'. He was probably half a mile away when I whispered my answer on the breeze to him.

'I love you too Eric.'


	23. Chapter 23

What is a poor Southern Girl to do when her lover is away? Well, when you're full of Vamp blood,… "To die, to sleep— To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub!

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause—" Hamlet, Act III scene I

I do like Hamlet, and if you read it thinking about crossing over to the vamp-side, it will make you smile.

Cheers,

Merick

Chapter Twenty-Three

He was away five days, but he called me every evening, during the first break they took from their hearings; usually about the time I was getting off work. I kept the phone on vibrate in my apron, and then in my coat pocket when I left so I wouldn't miss him. I had to admit, the iPhone was another amazing luxury Eric had afforded me, along with the car, which, while it still drew some stares as I drove around town, was really growing on me, at least people had a valid reason to stare now. It was going to be hard going back to my little rattling hatchback when the time came. I'd never really put much value on having the latest and greatest before. Most of my clothes came from Target, my Television was Jason's old one, and I still had the corded phone in my kitchen. I guess you could call me down to earth; truth was, poor might have been a better description, except for the glorious fact that I didn't have a mortgage, Gran had left me the house, all paid off. And I didn't have a car payment either, well, not on the hatchback. Eric was making the payments on the Mercedes, and covering the insurance. Wow, I really did have it good. Better than lots of people I knew. Still, I hadn't gotten the driveway fixed yet, and I certainly wasn't going away on any vacations any time soon, or putting money away in a 401K. I lived in the moment, and when you're dating a vampire, maybe that's a good thing.

I didn't see much of Bubba, met him waiting for me on my porch one night, when I'd stayed late at work when Arlene had begged off early. That girl had been awfully pale looking of late, and it was a real job keeping myself out of her business to sort out what was going on: hers and Terry's that was. Terry seemed awfully pleased with himself, which was a nice change. He and Lala seemed to be having a good old time in the kitchen most nights. At any rate, let's get the story back to Bubba. He'd been sitting on my porch swing when I pulled in, the headlights caught his shape, and since I'd seen him from a ways off I wasn't at all frightened to see a person there. He waved at me as I pulled in, though I didn't know if he saw my response through the tinted glass windows or not. He greeted me in that deep southern voice again, same inflections, which always made me smile. He inquired after my health, and once reassured, retreated back into the woods even after I'd invited him to stay and chat for a while. He took his task from Eric quite seriously it seemed, and preferred to patrol the woods and watch out for me. He'd mentioned some kind of disturbance early on in the evening, more of a scent out of place he told me, and he wanted to make sure it was just a new animal staking out territory and nothing else. He mentioned nothing about another vampire in the woods the whole time he was there, and that made me feel a little better too.

I hadn't seen hide nor hair of Bill since 'the evening', and Jessica hadn't mentioned anything, and I certainly hadn't inquired. She and Hoyt seemed to be having a wonderful time setting up their home, and she'd taken a couple of nights off to go shopping with him in Shreveport to the aforementioned 24 hour Target store. So it had mostly been Holly, Arlene and myself, and really mostly Holly and myself. There was something interesting about Holly, but I really tried to keep out of her brain too, though I did get the occasional flash of her cooking up some of her herbal things; going through recipes and the like, when she was really concentrating hard. I didn't mean a darn thing to me, what this root, and that seed were meant for anyways. Tara was behind the bar; still making covert glances at Jason when he came in, so I guessed things were getting better between them again. That made me happy, really, deep down, I just wanted everyone to be friends again, and while I sort of worried about Tara getting in too deep with Jason, mostly 'cause Jason was likely to go back to being an idiot eventually, I tried not to push things on way or the other.

If I weren't at home when Eric would call I would duck into the back office at Merlotte's or pull the car over so I could turn on the little iPhone camera and see Eric's face. He always had a soft little smile for me when I answered, and it always sent the butterflies in my stomach to fluttering when it rang and the screen displayed 'lover' before I answered it.

"Hello my lover", was his typical greeting for me, so I knew he was always alone when he called.

"Hi Eric", would be my usual, kind of shy response. He really did make me feel like a teenager again, or like I should have felt as a teenager. And, since I had missed out on that because most boys thought I was kind of a freak, or I thought the same of them having read their thoughts, I didn't feel terribly guilty indulging that particular pleasure. Okay, truth was, I indulged a few pleasures at that point in my life. Eric being the foremost; and the phone, and the car, and the pleasure of feeling truly loved, for no matter where our nightly conversations took us, they always ended the same way.

"I love you Sookie Stackhouse." And he would sign off before I could reply.

I did love him, really I did, but I was still scared to say it to his face because I was afraid of what it might mean to him. He'd told me words were important, and I needed to make sure that when I said it to him, that I was ready for everything that it would bring. Truth was, I didn't have a clue what that might be, and I was really trying hard not to start imagining it either. Course I couldn't help the dreams.

I dreamed of Eric every night while he was away. I think maybe it was more than just having had his blood a few times. I think maybe it was the beginning of the bond he'd spoken of earlier. At least I kind of hoped it was. When I would crawl into my bed it was almost as if I could feel his presence around me, kind of like I sometimes felt Gran's spirit, watching over me during those quiet times of introspection, like in the garden, or out on the lawn sunbathing, or even on the porch with a glass of tea. Eric was part of my world, just as she was. It was enlightening for me to think in those terms.

The first night was amazing. The dream started out in Sam's office, that first time he'd kissed me, and set in motion everything that had happened since. The beginning part was the same, him making his request, or really his statement of request, the butterflies in my gut, my reservations, and the joke about denying the whole thing if anyone asked. Looking back it was easy to see how my great nervousness had reacted with humor; not that I was usually a particularly funny person; you could ask anyone, really. I had just wanted to lighten a mood that seemed so serious, and I played it over in my head, watching him return to me from the window, the look of disbelief on his face. I felt his fingertips brush down my cheek, and then turn my gaze upwards to him so that he could lay his lips atop mine so softly, like a whisper. It felt as incredible in my dream as it had that night. I breathed in the crisp scent of salt water as if he had been right there in front of me again, and watched his expressions change from serenity to absolute desperation as he rushed back to take me in his arms again, and kiss me like a lover, grinding his mouth against mine, tasting me, and stealing my breath. But this time, instead of finally departing, and leaving me on my own he lifted me down from Sam's desk and laid me on the floor, his arm tucked under my head like a pillow, continuing to kiss me even as his free hand worked to undo the fastings of his pants and shove them downwards, freeing his full arousal. For my part I was doing much of the same, shimmying out of my little black shorts with both hands, and pressing my body against his.

He took me with a great long stroke, forcing the full length of himself deep within me and began to thrust as I cried out with the delicious feeling of him. He pushed his hand under my white tee shirt, running cold fingertips along my heated skin until my warmth was gifted to him, all the while rocking himself back and forth within me. He repeated wonderful words in his deeply sensual voice; of how beautiful I was, how glorious it was to be inside me, how much I raised his passions, and that he loved me, over and over in various combinations that made my heart race even faster. He brought me to my very peak with his fingers on my skin, his manhood inside me, and his mouth on mine finally making me cry out as I came for him, his own climax following with a feral roar that made me tremble.

"I love you Eric." I whispered to him finally as he brought his teeth to my throat and bit down to begin drinking.

Needless to say when I woke up I was a bit of a mess, and so were the bedclothes. Damn that vampire blood, who the hell needed trashy romances when you could have that stuff? Yummy. I dragged myself to the shower.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Night two was much different than the first night of dreams, but no less wonderful. I found myself, well, both of us, Eric and I, in the cemetery that separated my house from the Compton house. It wasn't the daytime cemetery that I knew well, bathed in sunshine and dust motes catching rays amongst the old trees and their foliage. Neither was it the one of the night, the one of the Vampires, the blackness where Bill and I had met so many times. The one where the bleached, unkempt white stones stood out like jagged teeth from the gaping mouth of the earth, where the trees now turned into looming shadows whose branches sought to ensnare you. No, it was a third place, one I had only visited in dreams, the cemetery of the fae, and Eric and I were there together.

I could see him, a few rows away from me, standing between the stones, everything now lit by the twinkling twilight of faerie folk and lightening bugs. The markers looked odd, crisper than they normally did, cleaner, paler, perhaps just because they were set against the all too green grass that itself looked like a movie set more than a natural thing. Everything was just 'more' than it would have been normally. I didn't have a better way to explain it. But Eric looked like all my fantasies, maybe even better. He looked like he had stepped out of a Tommy Bahamas' ad or something like it, unbleached cotton pants, drawstring tied a little loose, so that instead of sitting around his waist, they sat lower, just on his hips, showing off the cuts that ran from waist down to, well, did I mention that Eric wasn't a big believer in underwear? His shirt, white, long sleeved, unbuttoned, billowed around him as he stepped towards me; maybe looking a little too much like the images from a trashy romance, but it was my dream after all. As he walked, as we both walked, our eyes stayed locked, and our feet moved more like a dance than anything else. Footfalls were careful, pointed toes touching the ground, bodies and arms reaching forward to each other as we slipped around the stones in a graceful ballet.

When our hands met we continued the dance together walking along, the blades of grass just wet and a little crisp curling about our toes. Even the vines and moss hanging from the trees seemed to come to life as we passed, reaching out to brush our shoulders and hair. Romance to classical dance to Disney movie, ah well, it made perfect sense at the time. We were drawn finally to the edge of the golden pond where I had watched the faeries descend, ascend? I still wasn't quite clear on the whole Claudine thing. Eric guided me down to the ground, still looking into my eyes as deeply as he ever had. Dipping his hand into the pond, and pulling it forth, the water poured through his fingers, more like glittering powder than liquid. It made him smile, and though I didn't understand exactly what had triggered it, I loved to watch the serenity in his face. He had always had some kind of connection to water, I supposed it was from his human life, and I wondered, looking at him then, if he'd ever stood on the prow of a war boat, looking out to a shoreline he expected to conquer.

We shared simple kisses and reverent laughter in that place, surrounded by its sparkling aspect until I woke with the full sunshine streaming into my room between the shutters. I felt warm, inside and out, and afforded myself the luxury of simply lying in bed, watching my own dust motes swirl about, letting the dream images wash around for a little while longer.

Night three was the one I came home to find Bubba waiting for me on the porch, so not surprisingly he showed up in the dream as well, and I'm just going to clarify something here; not because I'd had his blood or anything like that, 'cause I didn't. Just more of one of those, last thing you see, or song you hear before going to sleep invading your dream kind of things.

We were in a place like you might find in Vegas or Atlantic City, I imagined, back in the fifties and sixties, not quite a speak-easy, 'cause I knew that prohibition had long since been repealed, but kind of like a private club where important people would go, Politicians, Actors, rich people, so how I got there I couldn't say. Eric and I were sitting at a little round table, just the two of us, though there were two more unoccupied chairs as well. There was a dark red tablecloth, and a Depression glass kind of looking candleholder in the center of it, flicking a tiny little flame, which really didn't light up much of anything. Eric was in a black three-piece suit, vest done up, jacket not, white shirt and dark tie. There was a fedora hat on the table in front of him, and a gunmetal cigarette case that he was tapping on. The hi-ball glass in front of him held an amber liquid; whiskey, or bourbon possibly, it wasn't blood though. Guess that would have been gauche. Having said that though, it was certainly obvious that he wasn't the only vampire in the place.

I was sitting beside him, dressed in a red gown, bare arms and shoulders, with my hair all piled up on my head, tucked in with jeweled bobby pins, with dark red lipstick and smoky eye shadow on skin so pale I almost looked like a vamp myself. My glass had a similar liquid, only with ice; guess Eric liked his drinks neat. We were watching a performer on stage, and yes, it was Bubba, decked out in his sequins and cape. Maybe it was a bit of a hodge-podge of eras, but again, in my defense, it was my dream. Eric threw sideways glances at me as he watched Bubba and the other occupants of the room. Periodically one would come over to address him, in languages I didn't understand, with a tip of his hat for Eric and then me. It almost seemed as if Eric should be offering them his ring to kiss or something, it seemed so serious.

Bubba continued to sing, and I directed my attention to him, until Eric finally reached over to me, brushing cool fingertips along my cheek, calling my attentions and gently turning my face to watch him. The look in his blue eyes was smoldering to say the least if ice can be said to smolder, and it made me blush, just a bit, which made him smile at me, fangs bared. He looked so dangerous just then. All I wanted to do was have him pull me into a kiss, in front of everyone, just to show them all that I was his. But he didn't. He just stared at me, as if he was looking over every nuance of my face, studying me for some purpose. I found I didn't mind it. It made me feel desirable. No one else came to sit down at our table. In fact they gave us both a wide berth then; as if they were avoiding him, the predator now locked into his prey.

"Dance with me." The words were more of a command than an invitation, though his offered hand betrayed the respect he did hold for me. I knew I did not have to take it, but I wanted it. I rose, keeping my eyes locked with his and he spun me around the room of Vampires, declaring his alliance with me for all to see. His grip spoke louder than any word could have to all assembled. 'This human is mine, you will not touch her.' I was safe in his arms, and I loved the way he held me, with authority that told me I had nothing to fear, faerie blood or not. And we danced.

As we moved he pulled the pins from my hair, one at a time until the strands fell completely, framing my face in a blond halo.

"I like it better this way. No one else can see your neck, and its beauty is all my own."

I felt the shudder run through my body, and so did he.

"Your heart is racing my lover."

"It is."

"Are you frightened here in this nest of Vampires?"

"Not when you are with me."

"Good. That is as it should be."

And then he kissed me, properly, full on the mouth, suckling on my tongue as I drew it across the points of his fangs, spilling blood into his mouth. He moaned as he tasted me and crushed me harder against his chest.

"We have to leave now." He whispered into my ear when he finished his kiss.

"Why?"

"Because if we don't I am going to have you right here in front of all the others." He ran a hand up my leg, pushing my skirt into folds along my thigh. "I cannot wait for you any longer. Come back home."

I nodded.

We'd hardly seated ourselves in the car that was waiting outside for us when he began to kiss me with abandon. Fortunately he had a driver, and a privacy screen because I know I blushed again as he took my hand and placed it down on the front of his trousers, making his arousal plainly known to me. I cupped him, gently rubbing at him, hearing the delicious moans rise from his lips. In a fit of who knows what I slung a leg over him, hiking up the skirt of my dress in the process, ending up in his lap. It took him only a second to free himself from the constraints of his pants, guiding his length fully into me. The motion of the car and the grinding of my hips against him built our passions slowly, taking my breath in small spoonfuls till I was hardly breathing at all. I kept him at the penultimate moment till we pulled into the garage of his home.

Strong hands pulled my body away from his and furious movements set us both to rights for the short dash into the home; the driver having excused himself without a word to either of us. With me in his arms Eric flashed through hallways and down the stairs to his private sanctuary. No windows, strong doors, a canopied bed with dark blue covers, and my body, laid upon it, skirts pulled aside, his rock hard body within me again, thrusting furiously, growling, fangs down, until he came with a cry loud enough to wake any neighbors he might have had.

I had to make up the bed again that morning.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

The last night before he came home was the oddest night, the dream I felt I had the least control over, the least input into, consciously, if you could even say that about a dream. It really was as if I was simply along for the ride on that one.

It was dark, except for a moon, a huge one, reflecting on the water in repeating ripples. But it wasn't the water of the Faerie pond, or any lake I'd ever seen. It seemed so much more vast, with white caps in the distance that made me shiver. It was an ocean, though I couldn't say which except that it wasn't tropical, not by a long shot.

Eric was there, standing just out in the waves as they rolled over a rocky shore, barefoot, I could see the water lapping against his pale skin with white froth. It was wetting the hem of the robe he wore, open, hood down around his shoulders, long, wide sleeves covering his arms nearly to his fingertips. He looked ethereal against the moonlit blackness of the waves. His hair was long again, down past his shoulders, and he wore it loose, except for two braids, one at each temple, held back by a circlet around his forehead, which made him the picture of the Nordic Prince for me. He was breathtaking. And he was holding his hand out for me.

I saw my hand reach for his, like a stranger in my own body, and I looked down to find my own feet bare and a similar robe draped over my shoulders falling to the rocks. My hair was long as well, and I could feel a cool weight on the skin of my forehead. A touch from my fingers revealed it to be another circlet. I stepped towards him to have him take my hand, and my feet touched the icy water, though I did not start at how cold it was. As we stood there, hand in hand, looking out over the dark people seemed to materialize around us. The first, and most peculiar, if I could be so bold as to rate the levels of peculiarity in those assembled was a man, shorter than Eric, about my height. I thought at first he was a Vampire, but his fangs were wrong. To begin with he had two sets, one set protruding from each jaw, upper and lower, and they were longer, lying over his lips, unable to be hidden away. And his skin was not pale, in fact he looked positively tanned, and as I was to see just a little bit later, his hands were elongated, fingernails ending in points, like talons. But he did not seem frightening to me.

As I looked around us other beings appeared. Out in the water, spirit shapes, the ghosts of Vikings, Eric's people perhaps, translucent but visible. Beside me, not quite in the water Claudine's folk, the faeries, delicate, draped in flowing garments that clung to perfect forms. Behind Eric, Vampires for certain, fangs gleaming in the moonlight, and further up on the beach all manner of shifters and weres, some in human, some in animal form. And others, spiritual ones, like druids it seemed, intermixed with the shifters, all staring down at Eric and I, in a silent witness to some ceremony I could not fathom right then.

Holding our clasped hands outwards towards the officiant Eric turned them, and opened his so that our palms were upwards, the pale skin glinting. The man spoke in a language I didn't think I would understand, and yet the words, though nonsensical, resonated in my head so that I understood.

"Sharing blood is the first bond, and the last bond. It is the source of life, death and life everlasting." He spoke slowly, reverently, and with a voice possibly more suited to a demonic entity then the role he was playing that night. And no one else made a sound but simply listened, only the surf itself dared, beating against the rocks with a muted roar and raised mist.

From the folds of a red cloak he drew forth a dagger, not silver I noted, and not iron. It was stone, and black in color, with sides that looked chipped away like an arrowhead: obsidian glass, it could be nothing else.

"As it began, as it shall always be." He continued. He brought the blade down over our stretched palms and cut across them deeply so that blood welled up. But I felt no pain. Eric pushed our hands together again and held them stretched out over the black water; intermingled blood dripped down and was mixed with the sea foam now swirling around our ankles in a pink froth. I turned my face away from the man and looked into Eric's eyes. They were soft, unlike his grip on my hand, which while it did not hurt, was strong, maybe even as strong as I one I held back with.

"I love you Sookie Stackhouse." He brought his mouth down over mine again, kissing me, but this time as our tongues played together I felt something new, and brushing the tip over my own teeth I found them, fangs, as sharp and deadly as Eric's grown from my own jaw.

I awoke with a scream.

Bubba's hurried footsteps on my porch, and subsequent pounding on my door tore me from whatever shocked state I was in, and I stumbled from my bed, not even bothering with a robe to throw open the front door before he tore it from its hinges. I met a look of tightened readiness on his face, prepared to rend and tear at whatever it was that had frightened me, but he found only me, in my tank top and jammie pants, beginning to cry, and the ferocity of his countenance quickly faded, to be replaced by shock and a tender concern as I dissolved into tears.

"Miss Sookie? What's wrong?"

I felt like an idiot as I blubbered out, 'it was only a nightmare, I'm okay'.

"You most certainly are not Miss Sookie."

Just my luck to find another perceptive Vampire on my porch.

I stepped out into the night air; I didn't even feel the cold, though I was still shivering from the images that seemed burned into my retinas. I sat heavily on the porch swing, the ancient thing creaking behind me and swaying just slightly. I let my head fall into my hands, practically doubled over.

"I should call Mr. Eric." Apparently Bubba had a phone as well. Eric must have gotten a bulk discount.

"No, please don't Bubba, he'll just think it's dumb, and I don't want to disturb him, his business is important, more important than a nightmare."

"I don't know that anything is more important to Mr. Eric than you Miss Sookie." Bubba sat himself down on the porch right in front of me, and I raised my head out of my hands to look at him.

"Do you know Mr. Eric very well Bubba? If you don't mind me asking."

"Well enough I suppose. I've worked for him off and on for twenty-some years. He's always treated me well." Bubba smiled a lopsided grin, curling one corner of his mouth upwards. "He helps me stay out of trouble. Sometimes I get confused about things, and that makes me angry. Mr. Eric makes sure I don't hurt anyone, or myself." That made me smile. "He loves you very much Miss Sookie. I think sometimes I remember what that feels like."

I felt so terrible for him right then. I might have had a nightmare, and maybe all my memories weren't great, but at least I had them, warts and all. Bubba had nothing but vague feelings. And he was comforting me. I wiped off my tears on the back of my hand and tried to put a smile on my face as false as it looked against the mottled cheeks and red nose.

"Do you love him Miss Sookie?"

I sighed, what harm would there be to say it, I asked myself.

"Yeah I do Bubba. I really do. I hope that isn't crazy."

"Not crazy at all. He'll do right by you."

"Maybe that's just what I'm afraid of Bubba." He caught that note faster than I imaged he would have.

"Is that what your nightmare was about?"

"Sort of, I guess." I stuttered, trying to be very careful what words I chose. Bubba was loyal to Eric, long before keeping my secrets, and I didn't want Eric to hear half a story from him and get the wrong idea. "I think I died, and that scared me Bubba."

"Mr. Eric won't ever let any harm come to you. That's why I'm here." He declared proudly, sitting up just a little straighter.

"I know, and you being here makes me feel better. Maybe I'll just go back inside and try to go back to sleep."

"I'll be out here if you need anything Miss Sookie."

I couldn't get back to sleep, I just sat on my bed, with the table lamp on and hugged my knees, trying really hard not to cry. I generally don't put much stock in dreams, 'cause they aren't real, but looking over the images that had haunted me over the four nights Eric had been away it was hard not to try to analyze them, especially as the hours crept on without me sleeping.

The first dream had been Eric and I at Sam's, a fantasy, what might have happened, my subconscious letting him into my world, my human world. The second dream, on the shores of the Faerie lake was like sharing with Eric the other part of me, the part I didn't really know much about yet, the Faerie blood and the world of my own supernatural side. But they were different than the dreams I'd had of Bill, especially the one of him sitting in my kitchen, reading the paper in a Leave it to Beaver kind of moment, bright sun streaming in the windows, setting him to burn. That dream had just shown me how different our lives were, and that he'd never be able to fit into mine, not then. But with Eric, the dreams had been at night, in places where he did fit into my world, and instead of showing me the futility of falling in love with him, they tried to emphasize the possibilities of it; how it might work.

The third dream showed me how I could enter into a joined world, one of humans and Vampires together, even if the periods were all muddled. It was a step into his world, one I hadn't really taken yet, and one he had so far discouraged me from taking with good reason. The Vampires who were aware of me, or had been aware of me besides Eric, Pam, Jess and Bill; and I questioned that last one, wanted to use and control me, or just kill me. It was better to stay hidden from them so as not to arouse any more 'faerie cravings'. The dream was encouraging though, as if the step might be taken. And the fourth dream, well, full immersion, I had left my world behind and joined Eric's most finally. I'd never, ever thought of my own death in terms of being changed; at least not consciously. But apparently my subconscious had other ideas. If Eric couldn't fully join my world, why couldn't I join his instead?

Good thing I didn't put much stock in dreams.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

So you might ask, how was it Sookie, that you found yourself behind the wheel of a Mercedes S Guard, at two in the morning, driving to Shreveport with a rather infamous Vampire as your co-pilot? Well, let me tell you.

The day after that last dream was haunted, and I'm sure I walked around like a bit of a zombie; which sadly no one seemed to notice, or at least comment on. Maybe that was a good thing? How do you explain to your friends that you had a dream about going over to the Dark Side, as it were? I didn't even know if all I wanted was for the day to be over, or if I wanted to avoid the night altogether. But, as sunset is inevitable, it came, and so did a call from Eric, earlier than I had expected. My hands shook just a bit as I answered it, fortunately he couldn't tell that over the phone.

"Hello my lover, how are you?"

I smiled to myself, still happy to hear him, even if it did bring back the images of the dream.

"I'm okay Eric." My voice wavered though and I knew I wasn't all that convincing.

"No you aren't." I could just imagine the playful eyes dissolving into a narrowed look of concern. I hadn't turned on the camera; I didn't want him to see me.

"I'm just tired Eric."

"Please don't lie to me Sookie. Something has you upset."

"Really Eric, I just didn't sleep well last night."

"Dreams?" His voice had an odd lilt to it; like he was asking a question he really didn't want the answer to. It was hesitant.

"Yes." I knew my answer wasn't initially satisfying and I tried to qualify it because I felt he deserved that honesty from me, at least to some degree, it was just a dream after all, wasn't it? "I just miss you Eric. I don't sleep so well without you close. Your blood does strange things to me."

He laughed just a little, but still sounded concerned as he continued to speak to me.

"It isn't just the blood Sookie. It's our growing bond, we have shared a great deal in the last few weeks."

"You mean you dream of me too?"

"Of course I do, and I feel when you are distressed sometimes. It's not completely clear yet, but it will grow stronger."

"So the dreams I'm having could be eavesdropping into your feelings?"

"I suppose that is possible. We can discuss it when I return." Again, I didn't quite know if that notion made me feel better.

"You're calling so early tonight, is everything okay?" I wanted to get off the dream subject and get back to the giddy, teenage butterflies that normally accompanied his calls.

"We have concluded our business, there is only a ceremony to perform, to bind the new agreements that have been made. A few hours at most and I will be free to leave."

"So you could be home tonight?"

"I imagine I will make to Shreveport easily enough, but I don't know if I will be able to come out to Bon Temps, much as I believe I should by the sound of your voice." I started to object but I don't think he heard me because he continued on with his thought. "I have to check in on Pam, and the club. I do not know if Pam has been completely forthcoming with me about the happenings there. She is still quite protective of me, I find it amusing actually."

"Of course, I understand." The teenage girl part didn't understand a bit, but the woman did, and she kept the disappointment out of my voice.

"Perhaps you would like to meet me at my house?"

I hadn't seen that one coming.

"I can have someone meet you there. Bubba can ride back with you if it would make you feel better, he knows everyone who works for me." Somehow I doubted that, I knew Eric had covert employees, people no one knew about, working to further his interests; at least I suspected he did, not that it really mattered. I was certain that Bubba knew all Eric's regular employees, and of course, that was whom Eric was referring to.

I didn't answer immediately, despite the fact that it seemed awfully well planned out for a spur of the moment suggestion. For some reason it felt like a huge step, going to Eric's house, and I didn't really think it should have felt that way; he'd been to mine so many times. But I figured the anxiety could be traced back to the progression of the dreams, and going there, that night would be taking that first step into his world, or at least into his intimate world.

"Sookie?" I wondered if he perhaps thought that the connection had been lost; on the cell phone that was, I was taking so long to answer.

"Are you sure Eric? You'll probably be so tired when you get back." I have no idea why I was trying to get him to change his mind about the invitation. Some parts of my body were absolutely screaming their objections at me even as I said the words.

"I have been away from you for too long already my lover. I will not be tired." It was really all that I needed to hear, especially in that bedroom voice. It made me tremble.

"I'll pick up Bubba right after my shift ends."

"He'll be able to direct you. I'll have someone waiting."

"Thanks Eric, I miss you."

"I love you Sookie Stackhouse." And he hung up again.

And that's how I ended up in the car.

Bubba kept the drive from being boring, especially since I was nervous about turning on the radio for company. Heaven forbid some late night DJ play the wrong song and set the poor man off. No, I talked a bit about work, and about my friends at work. Mostly Jessica; who I understood had come into the woods to see Bubba early on in the week. He seemed to think she was charming, and certainly liked her red hair. What I hadn't know, that Bubba divulged, was that he had come around Merlottes each evening, to ensure I made it safely to my car. He seemed a little sheepish revealing it to me, but I thanked him. It was when he asked me about Holly that I got a little nervous. It seemed she had some kind of vibe around her that he became aware of, and she smelled of things he didn't want to explain to me; and truthfully, things I probably didn't want to know about. Death had a smell, and I was quite happy not knowing if it was that, or something else that was clinging to her beyond my ability to sense, I knew she'd always been hard to read, but I hadn't thought that meant she was a sup too, although it really wouldn't have surprised me truth be told. He asked how well I knew her, and I had to admit that it wasn't well, really not much beyond work, but she'd always been pleasant to me, even if her being Wiccan had apparently irked Sam; not because she was, but because he didn't approve of folks talking about religion in his bar. It was kind of the same as his not liking dancing there either.

Bubba didn't quite shrug it off, but he mostly let it go after that, and I knew I was going to have to try just a little harder to eavesdrop on Holly, just for my own protection. I was really hoping that I was running out of enemies, but my life had never been that simple. I knew if I didn't do something about it that Eric likely would, and I didn't want to cause any more trouble for the folks at Merlottes. Bubba and I then started talking about my family, mostly my Gran, it seemed to put a wistful smile on his face to hear about her, and I liked sharing my good memories; it not only helped keep me awake, because it was long past my bedtime, and I could only have so many coffees, but it made me feel kind of warm inside to remember.

Really the drive hardly seemed to take any time at all, and before I knew it Bubba was directing me through some small subdivisions to an old ranch-style house, perched on the edge of a river with a wooded lot beyond that. The neighbors were a good hundred feet away on each side, so that, and the hedge of flowering bushes really afforded a subtle privacy that didn't scream 'A Vampire lives here', but simply that a private person did. As we turned onto the driveway someone appeared from the front door; I had half expected it to be Pam, but it wasn't. It was an older man, bundled against the night air in a camel hair overcoat. He motioned at the car and pointed over to the garage where he opened the door, revealing another S Guard on one side, and an open space, which I assumed was for me. I pulled in, looked at Bubba who nodded his assurance that all was well, cut the engine and unlocked the doors.

"Good evening Miss Stackhouse." The gentleman was waiting for us just outside the garage. He nodded at Bubba, who seemed comfortable enough with him. Turning back to me, he introduced himself. "Mr. Cataliades miss, I work for Mr. Northman. Periodically."

His voice had an odd accent, one I couldn't place, maybe European? Eastern European? He spoke slowly, enunciated each word carefully, and didn't use contractions or colloquialisms. It was very out of place in Louisiana, but oddly pleasant to hear, very proper, which lent him an air of authority that I liked. It was strength, different than Eric's but similarly powerful.

"Mr. Northman asked that I get you settled inside and then escort Bubba to his usual residence." I didn't know quite what residence Mr. Cataliades might have been referring to, but I did understand the need to shepherd Bubba in this much more crowded city. I followed the outstretched arm to the front door, grabbing up a little overnight bag I'd packed up with the human things I figured I'd need.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Mr. Cataliades moved about a little more stiffly than I was used to, Vampires and Shifters seemed to me to have an innate fluid grace to them, but not so this man. Oh I was quite convinced there was something supernatural about him, but what it was I couldn't hazard a guess just then. He walked me around the bulk of the main floor, which was a study, a living room a kitchen, and powder room, and apparently some bedrooms down one hallway where I could see the windows had been efficiently covered with steel shutters. He saw no need to go that way, and really, neither did I. I mean, if that's where Eric's bedroom was Mr. Cataliades had more tact than to make any suggestion that I should wait in there. He was, as I think I said before, quite a proper, well-spoken gentleman, or whatever it was he was. I thanked him, and as he left, to collect Bubba who'd waited on the porch, he told me to make myself at home and that there was food in the kitchen and I was welcome to watch television or use the computer in the study should I so desire. He didn't offer to shake my hand, but only nodded as he closed the door, reminding me to lock it behind him, which I did. And then I was alone in Eric's house, a little at a loss for what to do with myself. But once I sat down on the couch, well, stretched out on the couch, the fatigue of the day, and the night before took over and I drifted off into a little nap; thankfully dreamless, if just a little bit short.

I figured it must have been around three thirty or so when I fell asleep, and maybe closer to 4:30 when I heard the sound of a key in the lock. I was so tired though it took me far longer than it should have to drag myself to consciousness, even after I heard the voice.

"Mmmm, how thoughtful of Eric to have left me a little snack before bed." I had enough presence of mind to raise both eyebrows over barely cracked eyelids and shake my head.

"Very funny Pam."

"Well, you have to admit, a lovely little snack like you just waiting for me on the couch, it's hard to resist."

"I'm 'fraid you'll have to for now."

"Can't blame a girl for trying." I watched as she shrugged out of her leather coat, tucking it, and the Manolo pumps into the front hall closet. I wasn't completely surprised to see her there; I suppose I had always assumed she lived with Eric. I didn't even mind the suggestive banter; at least it meant that she wasn't angry with me for anything.

"Have you seen Eric yet tonight?" I shuffled myself up to a sitting position on the couch and swung my legs back around to touch the floor in a far more lady-like pose than my previous one.

"He's at the club. He wanted to go over the books quickly and make some calls before coming home." I probably sighed quite visibly at that point, because a smile crept across Pam's face. I hadn't meant to be so obvious about my happiness that he was so near, finally, but I couldn't help myself.

"You know Sookie, you really have surprised me." She sat down on the space my legs had just vacated.

"How's that Pam?"

"Well to start with, you're the first human that Eric has ever invited back to the house, and that means something."

"What would it mean?"

"He holds you in high regard it would seem."

"Does that bother you Pam?" I figured if we were being honest, well, I might as well figure out where I stood with the lady.

"No, not anymore. You've turned out to be a different person than I first imagined you were Sookie. Most women, when they meet Eric fall for his looks or his money, and pretty much end up offering themselves to him, usually with the hopes of a big payout. You haven't asked him for anything."

"Well he did get me the car." I felt sort of sheepish pointing it out, but it had been a very expensive loan.

Pam sorted of sniffed and rolled her eyes, "that was his decision, as I recall you tried to talk him out of it."

"I suppose."

"When Eric buys someone a gift it is his choice, he doesn't react well to demands or blackmail." Nope, I was sure he didn't. "I can admire that trait in you Sookie. You are independent."

I think what she meant to say was that I was content to drive a piece of dirt car and live in a creaky old house, work a minimum wage job and shop at Target, and well, she was right. I didn't need any of Eric's expensive toys, as much fun as they were to play with at times. I felt a little proud.

"What is it you do want from Eric, Sookie? There must be something." She didn't ask it to be mean; she was looking out for him, as she always seemed to.

"I don't want anything from him, except him I guess." I shrugged my shoulders. She smiled in response.

"Good answer." Then she stood up and started heading to the back hallway. "He's pulling in now, I'll just leave you two alone then. Good Night." And she was gone in that Vampire blur. I turned my head back to watch the front door, and just as she had said, Eric turned the handle and stepped across the threshold. He looked good enough to eat and I know he could tell what I was feeling, just by the look on his face when he saw me; a grin breaking out, and a sparkle in the blue sapphire eyes, and his own blur to whisk to my side and pull me into an embrace that had been worth everything to have.

"I have missed you Sookie." His voice was deep, whispered right in my ear and was followed by the deep intake of air that told me that he was breathing in my scent, likely listening to my heart racing.

"I have missed you too." Then he brought his open mouth down over mine and kissed me, delving his tongue deeply, tangling with mine, drinking me in, metaphorically in that case, with as much passion as I took from him. The touch of his fingertips on my face made me tremble; they were cool, but guided, and insistent, keeping my face at his level, keeping my lips pressed to his. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my body against him; desperate to feel anything I could from him just then. It was true, what I'd said to Pam, I didn't want anything from Eric, except Eric, his body, his soul, his love; I didn't want him to try to change, to become a part of my world, he didn't even have to meet me half-way to humanity, I figured the Faerie blood tipped me a little closed to the sup side anyways, and I was ready to take the steps.

"I'm so glad you came." We had our foreheads pressed together, lips only millimeters apart, allowing me a chance for a human breath.

"Thank you for inviting me."

"Is Pam home?"

"She came in a few minutes ago." I didn't want to let go of him; it felt so good to feel the strength of him under my fingertips.

"Let's go someplace more private." He smiled, "I don't want her eavesdropping on us." And he swung me up into his arms. I half expected him to go down the same hallway as Pam had taken, but instead he went to the kitchen, to a door at the back I had assumed led outdoors, but instead it opened to a staircase going downwards. He carried me past wood paneled walls, kicking the door shut behind us.

The basement was fully finished, everything in dark wood, with beams intersecting a white ceiling, giving it the impression of a much larger space, not unlike a medieval banquet hall I thought. No great iron chandeliers covered with spent wax and crowned with candles mind you, that might have been too much. What I saw was another sitting room, no television, just a great desk with a laptop on it, and barrister bookcases filled with leather volumes. The carpet was warm on my feet when Eric finally set me down, and I spun around slowly taking in the sight of what was obviously Eric's private domain. The fireplace explained the warmth; Mr. Cataliades must have lit it before I came. There were two wing chairs kitty corner to it, a small table between them, just ripe for smoking jackets and snifters of brandy. Opposite them, a loveseat, black, with a throw over it that looked to be of more rough wool than anything else. And of course, right in front of the fireplace hearth, an animal skin rug; I guessed at bear, but I could have been wrong. I could feel Eric's eyes on me as I returned my gaze to him.

"It looks like you." I said, quietly.

He closed his eyes and nodded his head slightly as he thanked me.

"May I get you a drink?" He asked me. I declined, politely, I didn't want anything to cloud my actions or my words, I wasn't much of a drinker anyways.

"Did things go well?"

"They did. I believe that Sophie-Anne will be busy enough with her new properties and wealth to leave you alone. Even with Bill at her side I cannot imagine that they will go through Russell's wealth that quickly. Besides, Russell had a great deal of business interests that will continue to pay out for many more years."

I'd hardly heard Eric's third sentence: Bill had been there?

"What was he doing there?"

"Sit my lover, and I will tell you everything."

For ten minutes or so Eric did tell me everything.

"Sophie-Anne arrived with quite the entourage, the most surprising member of which was our Mr. William Compton. I resisted to urge to simply take him aside and kill him because he had come in the company of a Queen; not that I am particularly subject to her whims any longer as Magister."

I certainly liked hearing that part, not the part about him not killing Bill, about the 'subject' part. He continued.

"She sat, politely, if not somewhat demanding, through the first day of the proceedings. Claims against the estate which predated the marriage." He said the word 'marriage' as if it was some kind of curse. "Having been present at the ceremony, I was able to verify the date." Another sniff of discontent from him at the memory it seemed. "Those claims were mostly minor, household bills, costs for his stables, some tabs from local clubs. Petty things really, but when money is at stake it seems that bravery is enhanced, especially in some humans."

"On the second day the matter of her marriage was taken up. Sophie-Anne presented her version of the nuptials, and I saw no reason to disagree with them. A political move really, since I could have had the marriage declared quite invalid since it was performed under the duress of the Officiant, and celebrated with his murder."

A tremor shook me at that point, and I didn't know whether to assume that it had been Russell, or Sophie-Anne who had done the deed. I didn't ask, it wasn't important.

"In supporting her claim I have earned her trust; not that I should have ever lost it, but fickle girls such as that are more than petty when it comes to their affections and their allies. For now at least, she owes me a debt."

I supposed that was good.

"Then it was a matter of sorting out which of Russell's contracts she still had to honor, and which did not survive his death. That was possibly the most boring part of the whole affair. But finally it was established, and we bound everyone to their rights, and I left as soon as her back was turned."

"Did you speak to Bill at all?" I hated myself for asking it, but I needed to know.

"Not even a greeting. He has made his alliances, and they are not with me." His words were crisp, a note of finality coloring them.

"So what happens now?"

"Well, if things play out as I imagine they will Sophie-Anne will move herself and her lackeys to Mississippi to take up residence in the more opulent of her two Queendoms. She will spend a great deal of money and attract more followers to herself, craving nothing but her favor to advance their own means. Eventually she will allow Louisiana to fall to ruin and the Authority will take it from her and bestow it on another, more competent ruler."

"They can do that?"

"Most certainly. And I will do my part to ensure that she is seen to have abandoned the good Vampire citizens of this state. Then she will be of no further trouble to either of us."

"An excellent plan."

"I thought so." He grinned, showing off his perfect white teeth. I loved that smile.

"Are you tired?"

"Yes. But I have been away from you for too long, and forgive my selfishness, but I am desperate to take you to my bed and make love to you before the day does claim my senses. If you will have me."

He stood from his place on the loveseat and offered me his hand. I took it without hesitation. I was just as desperate for him as he for me.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Holding my hand flat, palm out, pointing upwards, with his own over top, Eric ran it along the wooden panel in one of the walls, showing me just where to exert pressure to open the lock of the door to his bedroom. But for that knowledge I would never have seen a door in the wall, it was that well disguised. He flipped a switch inside the room, for my benefit only, to illuminate it in a muted amber from glass sconces. Closing the door he then showed me the locks I would need to move to open it again. All the while he was smiling at me, and it made me cock my head in question to him. His response?

"You are so beautiful."

I laughed just a little, feeling a bit self-conscious at the seriousness of his words; he had said them almost like a prayer.

"You are, even if you don't believe me Sookie. I have been dreaming of you for days."

"What did you dream about?"

"Your eyes, your hands, your warmth, your body, especially your body under mine, nestled into my bed, with no one but us, and an eternity of nights to make love to you, over and over." A shiver ran through me and I felt just a little lightheaded.

I could say nothing just then, but only reach out for him, pulling the tails of his shirt free from the black dress pants he was wearing. His fangs dropped with the gentle little snickt, possibly beyond his conscious control as I ran my fingertips under the waistband of those dress pants, drawing my body in close to his. His moan was delicious, and his hands reached to slide off the sleeves of the white shirt I was wearing over my tank top. The touch made me tremble.

"Don't make me wait for you darling." I whispered it, but I knew he'd hear me.

He swept me up in his arms again, only to lay me in a whirlwind on his bed, a majestic four-postered solid wood bed that really was the only type of bed he'd look right in. From the topmost beams of it, curtains were tied back, reminding me of royalty; which of course he was.

Leaning over me he brushed the hair away from my face, and allowed his fingertips to paint brush strokes over it. He looked at me as if he was seeing me for the very first time. The look of his blue eyes was softened by the ambient light, and by the emotions I could see flickering just below the muscles of his face. His jaw was squared even further by the shadows and I reached up to him, to run my own fingers along it, loving the strength written in its angles.

"Sookie." He began, and I placed those fingertips over his lips to quiet him.

Looking straight into his eyes, skin feeling the press of his fangs just under his lips, my body aching for him, tears coming to my eyes at his nearness, I spoke the words I had felt as truth for weeks.

"I love you Eric Northman."

He stopped, just as still and with the same confused wonder on his face as he had in Sam's office, the first time we had kissed, now staring down at me on his coverlet. I repeated the words, with more strength than the first time.

"I love you Eric Northman."

I watched then, in silence as the red tears rimmed his lower lids, not quite spilling over, but dividing the perfect white of his skin from the blue whose gaze I could not break. The lips beneath my fingers began to tremble, and then pursed together to kiss me there. I moved my hands slowly to his eyes, wiping away the blood with my thumbs, on both sides, then taking them into my mouth to again taste his blood, all the while him watching me.

"What did you dream about Sookie?" He finally whispered in response to everything I had said and done.

With all seriousness I answered his question.

"You turned me, and then you married me."

He was on me so fast I didn't even see him move, but I felt him, oh God I felt him. His lips crushed mine as his hands tore away my tank, and then his own shirt so he could lay his weight upon my chest even as he ground his obvious arousal against me. My body simply ached for him, and when he released my mouth I begged him to touch me, to take me, to be inside me, even as I shimmied out of my jeans to toss them to the floor. He roared as he forced himself within me and I met his growl, grinding my hips against him as he worked in and out of me. I could hardly breathe.

He was so hard and so insistent, just on the right side of being frightening in his intensity, and I fed off that, crying out with each deep thrust, and arching into his body to take everything he would give me. My hands raked across a chest of marble, which though it did not move with breathing, shuddered just as much as my own with every drawn out scratch.

His lips were parted, fangs still extended, smears of blood beneath his eyes, and blond strands framing a face that looked as dangerous as it was exciting to me. He was, in that moment, more than any other, my Vampire lover, and the roars of pleasure only added to the reality.

"Tell me again Sookie." He spoke through the bliss and the passions.

"I love you Eric." It was hard to even draw enough breath to speak it but I felt it, and I think maybe he felt it too, from me, from the bond, whatever the nature of that thing was.

"You will always be a part of me." He cried out, and he drove his mouth down over my neck even as his climax shook him. Flesh yielded to him, blood flowed and I wrapped my arms around a body that both trembled and convulsed for me. I felt every move, of his erection, of his hands, and of his tongue over my skin and within me and finally gave in to my own orgasm, riding the ebbing wave with him till I did not even have the strength to hold my arms around him any longer and I collapsed to the bed even as he continued to drink.

I felt my eyes fluttering, not because of his feeding, but finally because of the complete exhaustion that I felt. It never once crossed my mind, the thought that he might try to turn me right there and then. I just had a sense of him, from him, of a deep peace finally flooding through a body just as tired as my own. And in only a moment he lay down beside me, fangs retracted, smiling a small contented smile, his own eyes now heavy.

"I haven't hurt you have I Sookie?"

"No." I shook my head. "Everything is perfect."

"Take my blood."

"I don't need it." I meant I didn't need it to heal myself. I really didn't feel anything but fatigue, and the calm that had settled over the room in the wake of the frenzied love making.

"I need you to have it." I could not ignore the plea in his voice, and when he cut his wrist for me again I drank a few mouthfuls.

It did make me feel warm, as much as laying beside him did in the tangle of the blankets and pillows; moreover in the tangle of his arms. But it did not take away the fatigue, and I knew I was slipping.

"Will you stay with me today?"

"Of course." I heard my own voice fading. "I will be here when you wake my darling. I look forward to sleeping in your arms."

"If you need anything, you know where to find it don't you?" His voice was trailing off, the sun had risen and its power was calling him, as much as he tried to fight it.

"Sleep my darling," I reached out to caress his face one last time. "I don't need anything but you."

He smiled, eyes now completely closed.

"I love you Sookie Stackhouse."

"I love you too Eric Northman."

"Just Eric, for you my lover." And he was asleep, me only moments behind, after I pulled the blankets over us, to preserve the warmth of our shared blood and bodies. I did not dream, I had no need of the fantasy, he was beside me, and he was real.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I woke up after a few hours of sleep, I don't know why exactly. Circadian rhythms perhaps, despite my fatigue; or hunger, whatever it was I was awake, if not completely alert. I listened to Eric's house, ensuring myself that it wasn't an out of place noise that had done it; but not knowing what his house should sound like during the day, I gave up that pursuit fairly quickly.

The door to the bedroom was still closed, and locked as far as I could tell from my warm vantage point under the covers of Eric's bed, his still body beside me. I moved carefully to slip out from underneath the quilts, not wanting to disturb him, knowing that he must have been even more exhausted than I was.

The bedroom had an ensuite, and I crept in, thankful that his bathroom doors latched properly, and didn't squeak like mine did. It was an amazing space; not that I did much to enhance it. I almost scared myself looking in the mirror. My lips were smeared with blood, and there were traces of other droplets, which had dried on my chest.

I looked at the beautiful antique tub, brass clawed feet, fixtures worn almost dull from decades of use and debated just filling it up and soaking in it for awhile, but I didn't know what kind of noise it would make, and I didn't want to wake Eric. I settled for a somewhat less satisfying, but equally as effective washcloth and sink full of warm water. Once I felt presentable again I decided to leave Eric in peace for a few moments in the bedroom, just to see if I might be able to get myself a little something to eat, after all, I had been invited to help myself to whatever I needed. Fortunately Eric had a robe hanging in his bathroom, so I didn't have to try to wrap myself up in a towel, or search the piles of discarded and torn clothing to cover myself. Like the green robe I'd purchased for him at home, this one also fell to the floor on me, but it was cozy, and again, it smelled of his scent, which I just loved having around me.

I drew back the locks on the door, as Eric had shown me, and slipped out, trying to open it only as much as I needed. A gentle push sealed it again to keep him safe, and to keep things quiet. I was surprised to see the fireplace still lit; I had thought that it would have burned down long since. I was more surprised to see my overnight bag sitting in front of the fire, it hadn't occurred to me to bring it down, though it had obviously occurred to someone. Likewise there was a little tray of fruit and a bottle of orange juice sitting in a small bowl of ice. The sight of it all put a smile on my face. I could have only guessed who it was who had been so thoughtful, I didn't think that Eric had left my side, and besides, the sun was most certainly up, and it would have been a terrible risk to take, just to look after me. No, I guessed that it had likely been a human servant, or Mr. Cataliades; and likely the latter. Still bundled in the robe, I settled myself into one of the wing chairs and opened the juice first, downing most of it, then started in on the strawberries. As I was sitting there I heard a gentle purr from my bag, and recognizing it as my iPhone I retrieved it to see who was calling. I recognized the number, as Alcide's and not just from the Mississippi area code. I hesitated before answering it.

"Hello?"

"Sookie?"

"Hi Alcide, how are you?" I tried to sound friendly yet keep my voice quiet for the Vampires in the house.

"I'm alright." His voice sounded tired, more tired than I think he wanted to let on, actually it was kind of weary as I think about it. I didn't push him on it knowing what kind of things he'd likely been up to most nights for the last few weeks. Killing people who had once been friends, or lovers; I shook at that thought, could not be easy.

"How is Janice?" Janice was his sister.

"She's okay too, has the new shop just about set up now." The Weres, Russell's Weres and probably Debbie Pelt had set her salon on fire after we'd made it back to Bon Temps, after I'd gotten out of the hospital.

"That's good." I felt happy for Janice; she hadn't been part of the war, except in her obvious views about Debbie, Alcide's ex. I didn't even know if she was a shifter herself, or I guess I should say Were. I'd never asked.

"How are you Sookie? I'm sorry I didn't call you back before this. I did get your messages."

"It's okay Alcide, I know you've had much more important things to deal with than me."

"Still Sookie, that isn't an excuse. You've been such a good friend to me, and to the pack and you deserve better than that."

"Alcide, really. I'm just glad to hear your voice and to know that you are alright."

"Same here. You haven't had any more problems with Bill have you?" Bill had not left the best impression with Alcide, having nearly killed me in the back of his work truck.

"No, he's left town for awhile."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Eric had to have a talk with him, Bill got a little angry with me, and well, he got a little physical, and well it's done now." I stuttered a bit as I spoke. I had no idea why I felt the need to open up to Alcide about what had happened, I guess I had always just felt as if I could trust him.

"He didn't hurt you did he Sookie?"

"Nothing that wouldn't heal."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that Sookie. I'm glad Eric was there to protect you since I wasn't."

"Yeah, me too." I didn't want to think back to the bruising around my neck, or the fear I'd had of Bill's anger.

"Listen Sookie, I did call for a reason. I wondered if you'd like to come out to Jackson sometime soon?"

"Is everything okay, did you need my help?" A shiver ran down my back, I wasn't sure I wanted to get myself back into the middle of the Were conflict.

"No, everything is under control, I just wondered if I could take you out to dinner or something. Just to say thanks."

"Umm." I tried to find an answer, dread now replaced with anxiety. I remembered the nights in his apartment, the time in the hospital, and back at Gran's, him holding me, the warmth of his body; Weres run hot he told me, the tender eyes and those glances, too long glances that could have lead to something so much deeper but for the fact I was still under Bill's spell, or at least still confused by my feelings towards Bill. It wouldn't have been fair to either of us then, and it wouldn't be fair to him now, because I did love Eric, no matter how much my hormones flipped for Alcide.

"I don't know Alcide, really you don't have to thank me."

"Then maybe I could just come out so I can see you again."

Oh God, this was getting worse and I just couldn't tell him about Eric, at least not over the phone. All I could think about was what Bill had done to me, the cruel words, however forced they were, when he broke up with me, and taunted me with the details of his lovemaking with Lorena.

"You know, I was thinking about picking up some new shutters for the house, maybe you could take me out to some supply store and help me get that sorted?" It was true; the old ones looked even shabbier after the new paint on the rest of the house, and really did need replacing. And Alcide was a contractor, so he'd know about those kinds of things I figured.

"Ah sure, okay." He seemed a bit confused by my answer, but went with it thankfully. "I know a few shops, just measure up the ones you need and we'll go."

"I'll give you a call when I get back home then, once I have the measurements."

"You at work already?" Damn, why couldn't I have just lied to him?

"No, just out to check up on a friend. I'll be home later today. I'll call you tonight, before I go to work, I promise."

"As long as you're sure Sookie, I can come out any time if you need me."

"Thanks Alcide, but I really am okay."

We hung up with me still feeling a little sick to my stomach about deceiving him, but I just couldn't do to him what Bill did to me, he deserved the truth, and he deserved it face to face.


	30. Chapter 30

"Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm."

Fear not, our darling Sookie isn't quite as dumb as she seems. And in my defense this scene was halfway written even before all your concerns that she was going to betray Eric's love.

Plot twists abound, but love is eternal.

Enjoy,

Merick

Chapter Thirty

I had to sit for a while longer in front of the fire, trying to decide if what I had just done was terrible. Alcide was such a sweet man, and I couldn't hurt him by leading him on. I had to tell him about Eric, and I hoped Eric would understand why I had to do it in person, and not be angry with me for needing to reveal our secret to another person. So far I had managed to keep it from everyone, which had been surprisingly easier than I had thought it would be, because I was so happy, and I was sure someone would have noticed and asked. Sadly, or not, it seemed that my friends were all caught up in their own troubles. Jason was dating some new girl, and he had seemed uncommonly worried about her and the relationship, but still quite tight lipped about the whole thing. Sam was dealing with Tommy, who it seemed, was proving to be quite a handful; I hadn't seen Sam smile in quite a while, though he'd remained civil at least. Tara, well Tara had every right to be angry, and she sure as hell had been, taking it out on everything and everybody except a shot glass. I was proud of her for that. Through it all she hadn't gotten drunk, leastways not that I'd seen or heard about. Despite her desire to forget, she also seemed to have a desperate need to keep control of her faculties. And she wouldn't let me in to the pain. I don't think she'd let anyone in, even Lala.

It was amazing how fast my brain could wander off the topic at hand when I really wanted to avoid it. It was kind of like running away from your own mind, except it kept catching me. I looked over at the concealed door, and remembered the person behind it, and I just wanted to be back in his arms, to make the roiling feeling in my gut go away. Giving the fire a little poke to settle it, pending the arrival of its maker, I went back to the door, pushed my fingertips against the hidden locks, felt it pop, and drew a deep breath before going inside.

He was just as I had left him, lying on his side, one arm curled under his pillow, quilt drawn halfway up his chest, leaving just enough visible in the muted light of the sconces to take my breath away. He was so beautiful. He was a king, absolutely regal as he lay so still. I'd even gotten used to watching him not breathing and not fearing that he was dead in some corner of my mind. Even though he was, technically. I slipped out of the robe, laying it over the footboard of the bed, and crawled in beside him again. He was still warm and as I snuggled into his chest he threw his arm over me, resting it flat against my abdomen. I didn't know if he'd even woken up, it made me feel so safe. I closed my eyes, to try to sleep a little longer, but well, the best laid plans.

The evil little hamsters that I'd tried to squash earlier began running around in my brain again, taking me to places I didn't want to go. And don't get me wrong; cheating on Eric with Alcide was not one of those hamsters. Mostly it was about the things Bill had said to me, and it stirred up a new worry about being with Eric, which robbed me of my peace of mind, and any chance of sleep. I tried to lie as still as I could, even though I could feel the tears filling my eyes, and the beginnings of the sobs in my chest. I didn't want to wake Eric, I didn't want him to think I was foolish, or worse, confirm my fears. And by the same token, I didn't want to leave the circle of his arms, it gave me hope as my mind ran away from me; repeating Bill's words 'we f***ed like only Vampires can'. A silent tear rolled down to the pillow.

He must have known; he must have felt the tension across my skin, or even the sorrow and fear welling in my mind because after all the self-torture I felt the press of his lips against the back of my neck and I shuddered.

"My lover, what's wrong?" His voice was so quiet, but laced with true concern. I felt his grip around me tighten. The tears fell.

"Eric, I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you."

"What's happened?"

"I'm just being silly, I'm sorry." I couldn't even roll to look him in the eyes.

"You are upset my lover, nothing about that is silly. Have you had a nightmare?"

"In a manner of speaking I guess." I sniffled some of the words, and dabbed my eyes with the back of my hand.

"Talk to me?"

I took a deep breath and I did.

"Eric, am I enough for you?"

"What do you mean by that question Sookie?" His voice gained a little strength as he roused himself from his sleep.

"I mean, do I do enough for you? Do I satisfy you?"

"Where are these questions coming from Sookie?" He rolled me to face him, beautiful blue eyes, widened with my cryptic questions.

"Do you have to hold yourself back with me? Do you sacrifice your own pleasure because I am human?"

He crinkled his forehead as he looked at me, obviously confused.

"You mean when we make love?"

I nodded, trying not to cry.

He actually laughed at me then, with a great smile crawling across his face.

"You have the strangest dreams Sookie. There is nothing about you that doesn't satisfy me."

"But I know you're so much stronger than me, and that if you were with another Vampire that you could be more," I searched for the right word, and not coming up with it, used "vigorous."

He laughed at me again and shook his head.

"Sookie, I don't just want sex and orgasms from you."

"I know, but I just worried," I was afraid I was going to dig myself into a very deep hole if I continued giving voice to my fears. Damn Bill for twisting me up so much that I doubted myself.

"Yes, I could be more 'vigorous' with a Vampire as a lover." He continued to smirk as he said the word. "But I want to be your lover, and I want to make love with you, and I want it to be slow, and I want to take my time; human time, to enjoy every moment with you. And I want you to feel the same from me. Don't I please you?"

"Oh God Eric, all you have to do is look at me with your beautiful eyes and smile at me, and you make me feel like the luckiest woman in the world."

"So there really is no need for your tears then is there?" And he reached out a hand to wipe them away from my skin.

"I'm sorry Eric, I never doubted you, not for a minute, I doubted myself, and I just didn't want to lose you."

"You will never lose me Sookie. I will be with you forever." He leaned in and kissed me so softly on the mouth I thought I would just dissolve.

"I love you Eric." I threw my arms around him and pressed myself into his body. "I can't even imagine my life without you in it." I sobbed into his shoulder. His response was to simply hold me and let me cry for a little while until I did finally get a hold of my senses again.

"What has brought all this on my lover?" He whispered to me as he stroked my hair.

"I had a call from Alcide. Speaking with him made me remember all of the things Bill did to me in Jackson, when I thought I was trying to rescue him. He said some hateful, evil things to me."

"You cannot worry about anything that Bill Compton has ever told you, everything was a lie, you must remember that Sookie. All of it designed to ensnare you and then make you dependant on him so he could bend you to his will. You must not let him hurt you any longer."

I sniffled and nodded, quite certain that however I had appeared in the mirror before, spattered in blood, it was no match to how I must have looked to Eric with my reddened eyes and cheeks.

"Why was it that Alcide called you my lover, is there a problem?"

"I don't think so, but he wasn't very forthcoming when I asked him about how things were going."

"Did he ask for my help?" I remembered then that I had offered Eric's help should the pack require it, and it put me to doubt about our earlier conversation.

"He didn't, he asked if he could meet me."

"And what was your answer?" The tone of his voice had shifted to the business-like Eric I knew so well. Logical and thoughtful, his mind was likely analyzing a half dozen possibilities.

"I said I would meet him."

"Good. The fact that he said so little means that he might have been concerned about someone overhearing him. Do you know if he was alone when he spoke to you?"

This conversation had taken a turn I hadn't expected.

"I don't. But he said he just wanted to meet me to say thanks."

Eric raised an eyebrow.

"Does Alcide Herveaux have feelings for you Sookie?"

"I think he does Eric, that was why I tried to dissuade him from coming out, or taking me out for that matter. I finally compromised by saying I'd let him take me shopping, he was so insistent."

The other eyebrow went up.

"I am having a difficult time picturing Alcide Herveaux following you around a mall with shopping bags." I had to admit, that image did make me smile. But I corrected Eric.

"For new shutters for the house."

"That makes more sense."

"I want to tell him about us Eric. But I wanted to see if you thought that would be okay now? And I really wanted to tell him face to face."

"Any particular reason?"

"It hurts to have dreams squashed over the phone. I don't know exactly what Alcide feels for me, but I think he deserves better than a phone call. He's done a lot to help the both of us, even if you did get him to work for you to pay off a debt."

"A fair exchange I thought."

"He might agree."

"It is likely he will not be pleased when you tell him that you have chosen another Vampire."

"You may be right Eric, but my choices aren't his concern. And at least I know he won't hurt me for telling him."

"Unlike Bill."

"Unlike Bill." I agreed. "And if he does have something he needs to tell me, or you, it probably is better face to face rather than risking discovery."

"Well certainly, if it looks like you are on a date then no one would suspect."

"It's not a date Eric." I huffed at him.

"I know. I trust you Sookie. But if you wish me to have someone else follow you, for safety, you have only to say the word. You've meet Mr. Cataliades, not many Werewolves would be a match for him."

"What is he?" I had to admit to having been curious.

"A demon, and a lawyer, if those two things can be said to be mutually exclusive."

I snickered at Eric's joke, feeling so much lighter in my heart, which was surprising as I look back on it, because I'd just been told that demons also existed in the growing pantheon of supes I was becoming exposed to. Normally I like to think that that knowledge would have bothered me, but perhaps not any longer.

"I love you Eric."

"I know. Now, if all our current crises are solved I'd like to get a bit more sleep?"

"Oh Eric, I'm so sorry, I woke you up, cried on you, you must think I'm a real idiot."

"Nothing is more important to me than you Sookie. And don't worry, you'll make it up to me at sunset."


	31. Chapter 31

Sit down for this one folks, smut alert.

Chapter Thirty-One

I woke to the feeling of strong hands brushing across my stomach. I was curled back into Eric's chest still under the quilts of his bed. Thinking that made me smile, but not nearly as much as the touch did. There was another kiss on the back of my neck, a little more teasing in its intensity, lips pulling at the skin, and the brush of teeth. I moaned softly as the fingers slid down my abdomen, and between my legs. Gentle circular motions started, building in force as I felt my breathing change, and my muscles begin to tighten. Another nip at the nape of my neck and the fingers travelled further, pushing inside me as I gasped. There was a peal of laughter in my ear and Eric began to work his fingers in and out of me while still rubbing me with his thumb as I slowly lost my senses.

The frequency of my cries increased along with the speed of his movements against me.

"You don't want me to hold back?" He teased, "you want to know how I would make love to you if you were a Vampire?"

I cried out.

"Oh Sookie, I will show you." There was another laugh as his hands became frenetic against me, and within me, and I arched against him, half trying to escape the sensations, which threatened to overwhelm me, half trying to bring them deeper. He laughed again, an evil laugh, and then I heard the snick of his teeth, even through my uncontrolled panting. The bite came swiftly, the pain quickly lost as the orgasm took me, and he held me bound to his chest, drinking from me through every convulsion, not allowing me the chance of escape, or respite from his fingers.

Even the pull of his mouth against my skin was erotic, and spent as I was from the climax I continued to moan and pant, and to claw at the arms that held me, finally gasping out, "Eric Northman you are evil." To which he responded with another laugh,

"No, I'm a Vampire." And his licked his lips. "And you are my lover."

He kissed the spot where he had bitten me, and then whispered in my ear.

"And now I want you to make me come." The shiver that ran through my body at his words was delicious.

"What do you like darling?" I whispered back, words a little unsure, once I'd composed myself.

"Surprise me my lover." And with that, Eric laid back, put his hands behind his head and smiled at me with that wicked little smile of his.

"As you wish."

He closed his eyes.

I slid my still shaking body up over his, being sure to brush across the full length of his arousal, which elicited a quiet moan from him. I took one kiss from his lips and darted my tongue out to just touch his, then let the tip of it trail down the side of his neck, where I played at biting him. I felt the pulse of his heart beat against my mouth from the jugular vein there, and paused to count the slow beats all the while grinding my own sex against him.

His hands brushed lightly down to the small of my back where they rested until I slid myself down a little lower, to bring my mouth to his chest where I laid more kisses from the hollow above his collar bone, down to his breast where I set to work with my tongue and my teeth once again. The drawn out sounds of his moaning as I pulled and bit at his nipples fired my passions for him even further and I continued to tease him with growing force from my hips against the rod that was so stiff and hard.

Kisses continued down the center of his chest, tongue tracing the paths of the muscles, and tasting the salt of his sweat. I could feel his body tensing with every brush of my mouth and his hands held me just a little tighter against his skin. I squirmed down a little farther till I could gently blow the warm air of my breath across his pelvis, and watch his skin prickle and his passions strain.

I darted my tongue out to flick over the tip of him and he yelped just a little. I did it again, more slowly, swirling over the top, only to feel more muscles tense beneath me. I followed that with a kiss there, and then I looked up at his face, closed eyes were now widened, jaw tensed in anticipation of what I might do next.

I smirked at him and drove my mouth down over him completely, he cried out with a feral roar that made my own hair stand on end. He was too large I couldn't possibly take all of him into my mouth and so I held him at his base with one hand stroking him along with the movements of my lips. With the other hand I cradled 'the boys' gently rubbing them, feeling everything down there begin to tighten. I knew I could never move as fast as he had, but I also knew that he didn't want me to. I could just feel from him, like an aura, every wave of pleasure, the love of the sensation of heat across his most sensitive places, and the love of the building passions, drawn out as they were by my human movements.

He didn't pant, or hold his breath as I did when I felt myself beginning to lose control, but he had his own signals. Knowing how close he was I began to scratch my teeth up and down his shaft; not enough to hurt, but enough to tell him how hungry I was for him. Another glorious roar escaped his lips and strong hands pulled me up to him by my shoulders, taking a rough kiss and then flipping me over onto my back, driving himself into me as he exploded. I ran my nails down his back as I took all of him. He convulsed against me and I just watched him, with the smuggest little southern grin I could muster plastered on my face.

"How was that lover?" I teased. His answer was a tongue forcing its way into my mouth, diving against mine, and lips crushing me till I knew I would bruise. And I loved it. I might not be a Vampire, but damn, I could please one.

"Am I forgiven for waking you up in the middle of the day?" I cooed at Eric. He'd filled his big claw foot tub with water and bath salts that made it blue and pure smelling. We were lying in the warmth, me wrapped in his arms again, him alternately dripping water on my head and caressing my breasts.

"I suppose." He nipped at my neck, the other side than before, I was still a little tender, not that I was about to admit that. "But I'm going to ask you to promise me something."

"Mmmm?" I closed my eyes and enjoyed the touch of his hands and the nearness of his body.

"When you meet the Werewolf, tell him the truth." Of course he'd meant Alcide.

"I had always intended to."

"And don't let him kiss you."

"You don't trust me Eric?"

"I trust you Sookie, I do not trust him." Truth was, he didn't trust any Weres, and was only associated with Alcide because he had seen the opportunity when the senior Herveaux had approached him for a favor; the nature of which I had never inquired after. "It may be as I would like to believe, that he needs to bring you information about Russell's pack, perhaps even to seek my help. But it is just as likely that now that things have settled that he wishes to pursue a relationship with you. He will be unhappy to hear about me. Especially if he believes that you might share his feelings, or if you two have previously been intimate."

I think I stopped breathing right then, I was shocked at what Eric had asked and it took me a minute to compose myself in order to answer him with something other than a 'what the hell!'. But I stayed calm.

"I have only slept with one other man Eric. And even though he treated me like shit I was faithful to him." I was proud of how even I had kept my voice.

"I have upset you."

"Darn right." Still mostly even toned.

"It would not have mattered to me if you had Sookie. Our pasts are in the past." He continued to rub his hands over my body.

"Well I didn't." I protested.

He smiled, "I will make it up to you."

He did. I was late getting home. Really late.


	32. Chapter 32

Just a little plot development for this Thanksgiving Day; big things to come, hope you enjoy.

Merick

Chapter Thirty-Two

I was probably deluding myself about what was really going to happen when I met up with Alcide, but I measured for the shutters that I wanted and wrote down all the dimensions on my little iPhone. I was getting used to all the fancy tools it had. I even took a photo of what was already there; knowing full well I probably wouldn't need it.

I called Alcide, as I had promised to do and he gave me directions to a shop he liked to deal with about an hour outside of Jackson. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and my denim covered butt into the S-Guard and got on the road. I practiced what I was going to say the whole way there, just as I had practiced for the time I had relayed Eric's message about Russell's death.

I tried to convince myself that the way I was doing things was right, even if part of me hated myself for drawing it out an extra twenty-four hours. I could have told him on the phone, but as I'd said before, I just couldn't do to him what Bill had done to me; even if I wasn't actually breaking up with him since we'd never really gone out together.

Eric's words were also still ringing in my ears; "did he ask for my help?". Part of me wanted it to be just that, because it would be easier, and the other part didn't want that at all, because I didn't want to be drawn back into the role of broker between those two.

Over the course of the drive I knew that I'd have to tell Alcide straight off what was going on, and take my chances on his anger. I couldn't mince words either.

"Alcide, I'm seeing Eric Northman, and I'm in love with him." I repeated it over and over to myself. Sometimes it made me tingle to hear the words, sometimes it made me shiver, but it used up most of the drive time and when I pulled into the small parking lot I really thought I had mustered up the courage I needed.

I suppose arriving in a Mercedes was not the best thought out idea.

"Sookie?" I heard the voice before I saw the man. I was just stepping out of the vehicle and reaching back for my purse on the passenger seat. The question of my name was colored by shock, and perhaps just a little anger. I straightened up and turned to see him; dressed, not in his work coveralls, but in a nice pair of jeans and a white dress shirt, collar buttoned down. He looked good, too good for a 'going to buy shutters' afternoon, I sighed noticeably, my courage failing.

"Hi Alcide." I plastered a less than convincing stupid smile in my face.

"What's this?" He motioned at the car, not that he really needed to, it was completely out of place amongst the panel vans and pick-up trucks.

"Eric wanted me to have a safer car to drive for awhile so he leased it for me?" If my body hadn't cringed with the answer, my words certainly conveyed the feeling of wanting to.

He walked around it slowly, not saying anything.

"He was just worried about me." I tried to justify, not that I really needed to.

"Why would Eric Northman be worried about you Sookie, he doesn't worry about anyone except himself, and possibly that woman he has working for him."

"Pam."

"Yes, that one." He paused thoughtfully for a second. "Has there been another threat against you? Is it Bill?"

"Nothing concrete, just the usual mass of undefined supes who are out to get me." I tried to laugh but I was beginning to feel a little defensive.

"You didn't have to go to a Vampire for protection Sookie, you should have come to me and the pack."

"Eric isn't going to hurt me."

"He'll ask for something in return, he always does."

"It's not like you think Alcide."

"Tell me then Sookie, what is it I think?" I don't believe it was an invitation on his part to look into his mind, in fact I think he'd actually forgotten that I could do that right at that moment. No, this was worded as a challenge, and it made me a little angry.

"You think I've made some kind of deal with him? You think he's using me for my talents?" I heard my voice rise and strain a little.

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"I can assure you he hasn't asked me to eavesdrop on anyone for him."

"Then he's getting something else from you, isn't he?"

"I don't think I like the tone of your questions Alcide."

"Why don't you just tell me the truth Sookie? Are you sleeping with him? Are you paying for that car on your back?"

I hauled off and slapped him across the face, which was no small feat considering how much taller than me he was.

"You are a jackass Alcide Herveaux."

The words that flowed in his head weren't hard to read, I had really never thought he could be so ugly, as much as I knew he hated Vampires I hadn't thought that he could hate me that much. He saw my expression change, and realized that I knew exactly what he was thinking. He shut himself down, the way that all shifters seem to be able to do in my presence. I turned away from him to leave.

"Sookie? I didn't mean it that way."

"Really? Exactly how did you mean it when you called me a Fang Banger?"

"I didn't say it."

I put my hands on my hips turned my lips into a straight line and started at him as evilly as I could muster.

"I came here to tell you that Eric and I are a couple now, because I thought you should hear it from me in person, because I thought you deserved the truth Alcide."

"Why would you go with another Vampire Sookie, wasn't it bad enough that one already tried to kill you, multiple times?"

"And how many Were's have tried to kill me recently?" I wasn't backing down.

He sighed, "Point taken."

"Alcide he's not going to hurt me."

"I can't believe that Sookie. I know he will, maybe not right away, but Eric Northman has an agenda behind every action he makes, all those Vamps do and you won't convince me they don't."

"I love him."

"You loved Bill too, enough to risk your life for him."

"That isn't fair Alcide."

"You're too good a person Sookie, I just don't want you to get hurt, or worse, and it kills me that you are making this mistake again."

"Well I guess it's just my stubborn mistake to make then isn't it Alcide?"

"I don't know if I'll be able to save you from him when he hurts you Sookie."

"You don't have to. Don't worry about me any more. I'll stop bothering you."

I opened the door to my car again, tossed my purse back into the passenger seat and sat down hard behind the wheel.

"Please think about what you are doing Sookie." He leaned in before I could slam the door.

"I already have Alcide. You think about what you're doing too okay." He stood back, I closed the door and drove off, not looking at him, not looking in the mirrors, and trying really hard not to express the rage I was feeling in a flood of tears. I'd wanted to do the right thing, and once again, it had gone horribly wrong.

I sniffled for a bit, but it was easier as the miles rolled on to feel justified in my anger, and by Shreveport I'd calmed down enough to stop at the Lowe's and order my own damn shutters. They even offered me a credit card.


	33. Chapter 33

I have been waiting to write this chapter for weeks; I was so excited to do it, and I hope I didn't miss anything, and that it all makes sense in my context.

Please enjoy,

Merick

Chapter Thirty-Three

Bon Temps was different, I was different, and the whole drive back my mind wrapped itself around the changes and tried to make sense of them. In less than a year I had become aware of Vampires; yes they'd been out of the coffin longer than that, but they hadn't really impacted my life till Bill came to Bon Temps. I'd also become aware of Werewolves and Shifters, Maenads, Fairies and Demons. My tiny, insular world had expanded by leaps and bounds, an expansion I hadn't been prepared for. I'd coasted along for so many months, just accepting these gifts and nightmares as if it was the most normal thing in the world; and I had never really protested. I should have protested, maybe I wouldn't have felt nearly as hopeless as I did just then, on that drive. Maybe I should have looked out for myself?

Or maybe I had been acting selfish the whole time? Everything I'd done had been about pursuing a relationship with Bill, even if I had been manipulated into that. And was everything I was doing now about doing the same thing with Eric? I didn't think so; I didn't want to think so. I loved him, and I felt that he loved me, more so than I had ever believed that Bill had loved me; we'd never established that bond, not like Eric and I, and I was troubled by that; good or bad, we'd shared a great deal of blood, he'd been able to sense me, why not me him? Was it because it was his deception at the core of each time I took his blood?

All the while I had been winding my life around Bill's treachery I had at least kept in contact with my friends, but for the last few months I had been isolating myself from everyone except Eric; first his ghost and then him. But no, that wasn't completely true. I'd spent a lot of time with Jessica, and Hoyt in turn, and I'd tried to talk with Alcide and Sam, but I'd left behind the humans hadn't I, in favor of the Supes. And they had moved on without me.

My brother had settled his thoughts on one girl it seemed, not that I'd met her, but it seemed as if he wasn't chasing around the bevy of locals any longer. Lafayette had found himself a boyfriend, and while he seemed very happy, he kept it close to his chest, as if there were things he was hiding from me, from all of us. Sam had drifted away, looking after his brother, and dealing with something inside, something I wasn't about to invade his brain to sort out. And then there was Tara; she'd just taken off one evening. No one had seen her for days; she hadn't even spoken to her cousin before leaving. It hurt that she hadn't said anything to me about needing to leave; we'd been best friends since grade school, and for her to just run away, it made me feel kind of sick. She must have said something to Sam, because he'd been behind the bar for at least a week. I didn't know if he expected her to return or not. And then there was Arlene who was holding another secret from me. All these people, who had been my friends, were hiding things from me and I didn't know if I'd pushed them away or not.

Maybe it was time? Bon Temps wasn't the safe little space I'd hidden myself away in for my entire life, not anymore. It was as terrifying as any other place in the world right then, it was as if that town was some kind of magnet for nightmares, or maybe it was just me drawing them in. 'Course, I hadn't convinced Sam to move there, I hadn't brought the Maenad. Okay, maybe I'd brought the Vampires; but not knowingly. I sure as hell hadn't invited the Weres. Thinking about them made me angry again. I was so tired of being a pawn, and I just wanted to know that something was honest and real, and now being finally back in my own driveway I rang Eric, who I knew wouldn't be awake yet.

The message I left him was vague and cryptic, but not enough to demand he rush out to see me immediately upon waking. I needed time to think, on my own because it seemed like I had some big decisions to make, and I didn't want them to be influenced by looking at his eyes, and remembering the cut of the muscles across his chest or the way he made my guts flip flop when he kissed me. Nope, I had to be clearheaded.

I wandered through work, smiling when necessary, being pleasant to everyone, keeping out of everyone's heads, just waiting for the time to pass. Only when I got back in my car and put Merlotte's behind me did I allow myself to start exploring the possibilities that I could just leave. It wasn't as if I had a lot of marketable skills, I'd been a waitress my whole adult life. But there were lots of bars and restaurants in Shreveport, including one Vampire bar, where I could probably get a new job. I wouldn't give up my house or anything, but Eric's offer to come stay with him echoed in my head. I suppose it was all the possibilities I was considering that made me less cautious, or less aware of what was going on around me, because the last thing I remembered was turning the key in my lock and stepping into the kitchen, and then there was just binding pain.

Opening my eyes wasn't pleasant, not in the slightest. My head ached, my neck ached, and when I tried to raise my hands to rub them I found they were restrained. Coming to my senses, and taking a quick glance at my surroundings I realized that I was tied up to one of my old kitchen chairs and that there was blood, dried blood on my shirt. I snapped my head up, which turned out to be a terrible idea as my brain screamed at me for the action that nearly robbed me of my consciousness for a second time.

"So the bitch finally wakes. You humans are so f**king weak!"

Female voice, one I was sure I knew, but the ringing in my ears made it hard to sort out.

"Stay the f**k away from my wolf, bitch!"

Debbie Pelt. No question about it. I raised up my head again, more slowly that time, to stare into those mad eyes of hers, it was hard to tell if she needed a fix or if she'd just gotten one; the insanity was the same.

I really wanted to be a smart ass with her, because I'd had just about enough of Werewolves by that point in my life, but, seeing as I was tied up I held my tongue.

"I saw you two on your little rendezvous today, meeting up in a parking lot to get it on."

What rendezvous she'd been watching I had no idea; Alcide hadn't even touched me, let alone 'got it on' with me.

She grabbed the arms of the chair I was tied to and shook them roughly, spitting her venom at me, and bringing on the nauseating dizziness again.

"He's mine!"

"You can have him!" I yelled back at her, which took her by surprise for an instant.

"What?"

"I want nothing to do with Alcide Herveaux. We have never dated and we have never slept together!"

"Then why the hell has he called you four times in the last hour!" She waved my phone in front of me. Now it was my turn to look surprised.

"Got himself a new phone number I see!" I only knew one number for him so I had no idea if what she said was true, or just part of her delusion. Not that a whole bunch of people called me or anything.

"Why don't we just call him back and I can tell him over the phone how I'm going to rip your throat out." She laughed and it was beyond insanity, it chilled me to my core.

"Looky here," she read as she scrolled down my phone book, "Lover. You little whore, you are sleeping with him!"

I said nothing; I wanted her to dial that number, more than anything in the world right then. She did.

"Alcide!" She screamed into the little silver box. "I've got your little whore here!"

She hit the speakerphone button and I heard the most glorious sound.

"Who is this?" The voice was calm, measured, and most certainly, my Vampire.

"Put Alcide on the phone!"

"I can't do that, this is not his phone. Now, who is this?"

"It doesn't matter who I am! I want to talk to Alcide!"

"Eric!" I cried out, hoping he would hear me. My outburst earned me a slap across my cheek that cracked my lip. I tasted my own blood in my mouth.

"Shut! Up!"

"May I assume I am speaking with Debbie Pelt?" Came Eric's voice, sounding only slightly frayed, nothing anyone else would have heard.

"Yeah, you are, and I've got Sookie here, tied up, and I'm going to kill her unless you put Alcide on the phone."

"As I have said before, Alcide is not here, nor is this his phone. You are speaking with Eric Northman."

"That vamp guy?"

"Yes. And it seems you have one of my friends held captive. Since you have no grievance with me, I ask that you release her."

"Oh no, this bitch has ruined my life, it would give me great pleasure to kill her."

"Now Miss Pelt, I am sure there are other things that would give you more pleasure than killing Sookie. I am over a thousand years old; my blood may be just as mind altering as Russell's. Perhaps we could discuss a trade?"

She appeared to be mulling it over, and driven as she was by her addiction that pause did not surprise me.

"How much?"

"As much as you want, the blood is of no consequence to me. All I want is my friend, unharmed."

"How do I know that you won't double cross me?"

"Sookie is my lover, I would do nothing that would put her life in jeopardy." I nodded to try to affirm the truth.

"Fine, but I'm taking the car too, how long till you can get here?"

"Within the half hour, do not harm Sookie."

"You just better hurry your dead ass along!"

I never got to hear anything else from Debbie's mouth because before she could even shut off the phone there was a thud, and the splintering of wood from the front room. A blur with red hair sped in, knocking Debbie flat on her back. I watched as Jessica pounded her head into my kitchen floor until her body went limp. Before even looking at me Jessica picked up my discarded phone and spoke into it.

"I have her Eric."

"Keep her alive until I arrive Jessica. Is Sookie all right?"

Jessica looked at me and smiled, "black eye, welt on her cheek, but quite alive."

"Thank you."

Jessica gave Debbie's head another thump into the floor, for good measure and then proceeded to untie me. I slumped down to lie on the floor as well, feeling woozy and sick to my stomach. Jessica got me some ice from the fridge, wrapped in a tea towel to put on the back of my head.

"How?" I squeaked out.

"Eric had Pam call me the minute he heard your voice. He told me to get over here and take down the were-bitch."

"Thank you."

"No thanks necessary, it was fun." I wasn't sure how to take that, innocent little Jessica had gotten a lot harder it seemed; but maybe that assessment wasn't fair. I would have taken, had taken, just as much pleasure watching the bitch bleed on my kitchen floor. Jessica plunked herself down on the floor beside me, keeping one eye on Debbie's crumpled form, the other on my growing bruises.

"Did you want some of my blood? It'll help you heal."

"Thanks Jessica, it's not so bad." She screwed up her eyebrows at me.

"Yes it is. You look like hell Sookie."

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"Eric's blood will probably work faster anyways; I wouldn't blame you for holding out for that." She grinned at me. "He's a really hot looking guy, and he sure seems to worry about you."

"I'm in love with him Jess." I smiled at her, weakly, feeling the adrenalin drain away, leaving me with the aches of my wounds.

"With Eric? Really?" Her eyes widened. "Does he know?"

I didn't have to answer, because Eric did it for me.

"Yes he does." He was by my side in an instant, pulling me into his arms. He had dropped his fangs and slashed his wrist before I could even begin a greeting. The blood was pushed to my mouth and I drank, holding onto his skin as a lifeline. His hands stroked my head carefully even as his eyes surveyed the room. Jessica watched, a little amazed at the proceedings it seemed.

"Check the woods for me please Jessica, make sure she didn't bring anyone with herself. Does Hoyt have his shotgun loaded with the bullets I gave you?"

"He does." She answered with a nod. Then she tore out in another flash. I'd had no idea that Hoyt had joined her; I hadn't even heard the truck. But as I let my mind out I could sense him, greeting Jess and asking about me. I sent my mind further, looking for other Were minds, but found nothing, which didn't mean that they weren't there, and I was thankful that I had two friends searching just in case.

"Are you feeling better?" Eric cooed at me, his voice laced with concern. "She didn't do anything else to you did she?"

I shook my head, which thankfully did not hurt. "Just wacked me over the head with something." I held onto his arm even though I had stopped drinking, I just didn't want to let him go.

"Do you know why she came here Sookie?"

"Delusions I expect. She thought I was sleeping with Alcide. She still thinks of him as belonging to her I guess."

"Foolish bitch."

"She blames me for her mate getting killed, and probably for Russell getting killed. Probably for everything bad that's ever happened to her."

"Addictions will do that." He helped me to my feet, where I still felt rather unsteady and guided me to the couch in my living room.

"What are you going to do with her Eric?" He was continuously eyeing the motionless mass on my floor.

"Do you want me to tell you?"

"You are going to kill her aren't you?"

"She won't stop attacking you. This isn't the first time she's broken in here is it?"

"No, it isn't."

"She was part of Russell's pack, responsible for a great many deaths. As Magister I could bring her to face Vampire justice."

The mass began to moan. Eric was on her in a flash, hand gripping her throat. I closed my eyes as the crackling sound began. I didn't want to see.

My kitchen door opened and I felt, more than heard Eric's voice in my head.

"I will be back very shortly my lover, Jessica and Hoyt are returning. All is well."

Hoyt got out some bleach and began cleaning the blood off my floor while Jessica made me some tea. None of us talked a great deal except some small talk and me offering my thanks to them both for saving my life. Hoyt offered to call Jason, but I didn't want to worry him, it seemed as if he had enough worries of his own over this Crystal girl to hear Hoyt tell it.

"How long have you been with Eric?" Jessica whispered the question to me as she sat beside me on the couch.

How long had it really been? Ever since he'd returned, not that I could tell Jessica about that particular errand. But I'd known that I loved him from the moment of that kiss in Sam's office. "A few months." I answered, being honest.

"I'm happy for you Sookie."

"Thanks Jess." I squeezed her hand.

"Makes a bit more sense, what happened on Bill's porch now."

"I suppose it does. I didn't not want to tell you Jessica; I just didn't want Bill to find out through you, I didn't want to put you in that position. And Eric and I were trying to keep things quiet so that no one tried to get to him through me. Please don't tell anyone."

"Your secret's safe with me Sookie. I owe you and Eric a lot more than that."

A voice from the porch drew all three of our faces towards my mangled front door, frame broken, and deadbolt hanging askew.

"Sookie?" It wasn't Eric's voice, it was another one, and one I hadn't thought I'd hear again. Perhaps Debbie had been right; perhaps some of those missed calls had belonged to Alcide.

"Tell him to go away Jessica, please." She stood, my new protector, and opened the door to him, not that he wasn't already half way through.

"Sookie, what happened?" My bruises were healing, and but for my shaking hands and the dried blood I hadn't yet cleaned up on my shirt, I could have almost passed as human. Alcide tried to get over to me, but Jessica put herself in between him and I. Even Hoyt had stood up, shotgun now back in his hand.

"Your psycho ex girlfriend is what happened!" Jessica hollered at him, teeth bared.

"Debbie did this?" He looked positively defeated. "Oh God. I'm so sorry Sookie, I never meant for this to happen."

"I think you should leave." Jessica added.

"Please leave Alcide, Eric will be back soon." I was speaking to him, but looking at the rug.

"Sookie, those things I said before, I didn't mean them. I tried to call you to explain."

"Please go away."

"I knew Debbie was there, I knew she was listening, I wanted her to believe that I was done with you, I wanted to protect you."

"I don't believe you Alcide. You had words in your head, images that were just ugly. Those weren't for Debbie, those were for me."

"It wasn't like that Sookie."

"The lady asked you to leave." Hoyt raised the shotgun to shoulder height. "I think you should leave."

Alcide raised both hands in a gesture to show that he meant no harm, but Hoyt did not waver, and then Eric was back again, standing behind Hoyt, having come in via the kitchen. A gentle hand on his shoulder told Hoyt that it would be all right to lower the shotgun. Eric stepped around him.

"Did you use Sookie as bait Herveaux?"

"No, of course not, I never expected Debbie to be following me, I thought she'd have been long gone."

"And when you sensed her you did nothing to warn Sookie?"

"I was trying to handle it, it was pack business."

"Get out."

I was pretty sure you couldn't glamour a Werewolf, but whatever the nature of Eric's words, Alcide seemed to take them to heart. Even more so when Eric came to my side. A low growl erupted from his throat.

"I wanted to be your friend Alcide, but you made me choose, and so I have." I took Eric's hand, "Eric didn't make me choose, he told me to see you and talk to you, even when I doubted myself."

"He's just using you Sookie."

It was Eric's turn to growl, and Jess along with him.

"No he isn't Alcide, I can read his mind now too, I know the truth of his feelings, just as I know the truth of yours. Please go."

"Where is Debbie?"

"Gone." Eric answered. The steel in Alcide's eyes did not waver, he knew what had happened, he had known it would have to happen from the moment I had called to tell him about Russell's death.

"It was the pack's job to bring her to justice." He spoke to Eric.

"Then the pack should have found her first."

"Goodbye Alcide." I thought I should have the final words, and he looked into my eyes, then left.

"If you're going to be here for awhile Eric I can go get my tools and fix up Sookie's door?" Hoyt was such a prince.

"I would appreciate anything you could do until I can have someone come out to replace the frame and door Hoyt."

"Give me twenty minutes, I'll get it shut up nice and safe for you Sookie."

I don't know how I ended up so lucky, to have such good friends. Well, maybe it balanced out all the other sh*t I went through.


	34. Chapter 34

This may be it folks, or perhaps one more chapter, I hope you have enjoyed the ride. What started out as a one-shot reaction to a 'teaser' became something more, and I have loved every minute of creating it for you.

Thank you for all your kind reviews. And do stay posted, I have a request pending which will be the next Sookie/ Eric installment, just for a little fun.

Cheers,

Merick

Chapter Thirty-Four

When did it all go to hell? Was it the moment that Bill walked into Merlotte's, or the moment I met him on the path between our houses? Was it when we first stepped foot into Fangtasia? Or when I didn't accept his breakup over the phone? Or was it before that? Was it the faerie blood in my veins that had drawn all this to me from before I was even old enough to protest? The whole world just seemed to be swimming in front of my eyes, and not just because of the blow I'd taken to my head.

Eric had moved me back to my bedroom to rest while Hoyt fixed up my door, and I half listened to him, talking on his phone organizing the proper repairs for the following day. Jessica was making another round of my property looking for any unusual scents or disturbances, and I just sat on the bed and stared at the walls of my house, and the lace curtained windows that had been there forever, trying to sort out the above question, and figure out just what I was going to do about it.

"You look a million miles away my lover." Eric was keeping his voice soft as he re-entered the room from the hall, and he sat down on the bed beside me very carefully, and reached out to stroke my hair. I let the tears fall finally, I couldn't hold back the pain any longer. In an instant, without even seeming to think he pulled me into his arms, I felt his pain wash through my mind as if it was my own. It was nearly overwhelming.

"She won't ever be able to hurt you again Sookie, I've seen to that."

"Then who next Eric? Who will you have to 'see to' next? Why is everyone out to use me, or kill me, what have I ever done to bring this on myself?" I knew my voice was getting shrill, and that it wasn't really attractive just then. Of course neither was my face with tear streaks and the growing bruises.

"I don't have a good answer Sookie, I'm so sorry that I don't." He stroked my back as I cried. "But you can be assured that I will always be there to protect you."

"I'm tired of being afraid Eric."

"Take my blood, take my strength." He made to cut his arm again for me, but I stopped him.

"I need more than that Eric." I tried to look serious; because I knew what I had to say needed to come across that way.

"Tell me Sookie?" He looked at me so tenderly, so desperate to take the pain away. But I wanted it gone forever.

"Turn me Eric." Brown eyes looked right into blue with no hesitation.

He froze, I felt his grip around me go wooden, and the pain in his mind was changed to panic.

"What?" I could hear his voice crack, even with the effort he put into keeping it even.

"Turn me Eric, take me away from here, give me a new life, a life with you."

"Please do not tease me Sookie." There was a sadness crossing his perfect lips.

"I am not teasing you Eric." I think he was hoping that I would have admitted to doing just that, the confusion and panic that sat in his mind were fog-like.

"No Sookie." He spoke it so quietly, and with such wrenching regret.

I almost felt my heart break, my chest hurt so much when I heard his answer.

"Why?" I whimpered, "I thought you loved me?"

"I do Sookie, never question that. It is because I love you that I am saying no, for now."

"For now?" I looked into the blue eyes, rimed red again, and cursed my selfishness, for making him upset.

"Sookie, you love the day, I know it, I see it. You love being alive."

"I love you more." I pled my case; and he indulged me with a smile that didn't actually make me feel completely juvenile.

"I cannot take all that away from you, not yet, not until you completely understand my world, and what it is you would be giving up."

"Giving up people attacking me? I'd be willing to sacrifice that." He laughed at my feeble humor.

"Sookie, my lover, one day I will take you in my arms and I will give you that final kiss, and I will bring you back into the world as my child, as Godric brought me." His voice changed, and I almost felt the memory he was recalling just then, smelt the smoke of the fire, and the tin of the blood in my nostrils. "Could you be a companion of death? Could you walk with me through the world? Through dark? I'll teach you all I know. I'll be your father, your child and your lover."

I looked at him and nodded mutely.

"Godric made me the offer as I lay dying, not that he offered to be my lover mind you. And I make the offer to you Sookie, but only after you have lived in my world for a time, longer than a few months, long enough to know it is what your heart truly desires. And if it is not, you will still be able to walk away. Not many are ever given that choice."

"You will let me come live with you then?"

"I'll pack your things myself if you so desire."

"No, I can pack. I'm going to quit my job at Merlotte's too, will you mind?"

"Mind? I would be thrilled to have you out of there. If you really feel the need to work you can come work for me, it may be time for Ginger to retire, I cannot glamour her any more or she will lose her mind completely."

"Should you ask Pam?"

"I'll tell Pam. She may want to get a place on her own anyways, she has always been reluctant to have 'friends' over when I am there." Maybe she doesn't have any friends, I thought to my self, but likely that wasn't the type of friend Eric was referring to.

"I don't want to turn your life upside down Eric."

"Too late for that Sookie." He smirked at me, "From the moment you stepped into my bar you turned my life upside down."

"And I'm going to want to come back here from time to time, I don't want to leave Gran, and all the memories, the good memories of this house." I corrected myself. I would have been perfectly happy to pass on the murders, the maenads, and the werewolves though.

"I would never try to take your home from you Sookie. Times are so much different now, you can come and go as you see fit. You can even return to see your friends if you so desire, the death you suffer will be in body only, not is spirit, or in love."

"Thank you Eric, for giving me some hope."

"Now please, take some of my blood so you can heal. I hate seeing and feeling you in physical pain."

"Every mouthful brings me closer to you, doesn't it?"

"In a way, I suppose it does my lover. There are a great many thing that bring you closer to me."

I bit down on the offered fingertips feeling his strength fill my chest, and his passions beginning to set mine aflame. I wondered how much better it could get and I heard him laugh, which prompted me to bite at his flesh.

"Perhaps you will make a good Vampire Sookie."

"Of course I will."


	35. Chapter 35

Okay, so maybe one more chapter after this, I have to leave you with the transformation don't I?

Enjoy the build-up, I know, I'm a tease.

Merick

Chapter Thirty-Five

It was a year, well just over a year that I spent with Eric. A lot of things happened in that year. Tara never returned to Bon Temps, though Lafayette did hear from her every few months, so at least there was the ease of knowing that she was okay. Arlene had another baby, and how I'd missed the fact that she'd been pregnant I still don't fully understand. I didn't hear much from her or about her, and I got the terrible feeling that the Bon Temps curse had latched on to another person. Jason became much more accepting of the supernatural, though not willingly, but that is his story to tell. He came out to see me in Shreveport a few times as he tried to work through it.

Sam was still Sam, he hadn't made much of a fuss when I'd quit my job, and his distraction with whatever his personal issues were hadn't changed the last time that I'd seen him; when I'd come to check up on my house and had gone over for lunch. I'd been to town at least a dozen more times after that, but I never went back into Merlotte's it also seemed to have a negative cloud hanging over it; or perhaps it was just in my head.

Hoyt and Jessica came out every few weeks, and Eric, as a Magister, had married them in the spring. I guess I should say, 'joined them' since Vampire/Human weddings still weren't legal in Louisiana. I valued their friendship greatly, as they really did remain the only true connection besides my brother that I had in Bon Temps. I wasn't quite sure why they stayed, but they did. Maybe they set themselves up as the guardians of the place; both were certainly capable.

I settled in to working at Fangtasia after about a month of being in Shreveport. It took me that long to calm myself mentally, and Eric insisted that I take the time. Bad enough to have a telepathic faerie with issues, but a telepathic vampire faerie with issues, well, I don't know if even Eric's strength could have managed with that kind of crying. I had been in a terrible frame of mind when we'd first arrived. I looked around every corner for Werewolves and rogue Vampires and for the first week I didn't even leave the house. Thankfully Mr. Cataliades made sure the fridge was stocked with my every whim, which really didn't amount to that many. Pam wasn't thrilled about my cooking human food at first, but apparently the 'stench' kind of grew on her, even if the food didn't appeal. The bawdy jokes waxed and waned with her moods, but it was always a good clue as to whether or not she was in a good mood when she came home.

Eric was so generous to me, making room for me in what had been his private space for so long. He bought me new clothes, insisting that it would be a good way to start fresh, and he gave me jewelry, the first really expensive pieces I'd ever owned, except of course for the pearls Gran had given me, and her wedding bands. He told me that I didn't need them in order to look beautiful, but I think there was some pride in letting everyone else see me in his gifts, and really, I was ready for some well earned pampering and spoiling.

The folks at Fangtasia treated me very well, mostly because they were afraid of Eric, but I was good with that too. I served drinks, and sold trinkets from the gift shop, and helped out Eric with some of the daytime things, like taking deliveries. But even that started to drop off as I adjusted my schedule to match his, sleeping during the day and rising for the night. That took awhile to get used to, but it finally opened my eyes to how much beauty there could be in the dark. I mean I'd always known that the stars were pretty, but there is a stillness in the dead of the night; and yes, I use that phrase on purpose in case you were wondering, an absolute ethereal peace that I had never taken notice of before. And you know what? Gardens could be just as beautiful under the moonlight as the sun, as long as you knew which flowers to plant.

I began to ask Eric questions, all of which he answered honestly. What was it like to feed? Was there pain if you didn't? Would it hurt to undergo the change? Would my body feel different to me once it was done? Would I still sense and feel in the same way? His answers were not as frightening as I had imagined they would be; and trust me, I did a lot of imagining in that first week.

What was it like to feed, not much different than it had been when I'd taken his blood he told, me, except that it would be my fangs making the initial puncture. And he promised that he would teach me how to do it properly, and grinned at me when he suggested that I could practice on him. If you didn't feed there would be pain, no different than mortal starvation, and he said that since he had experienced both he felt qualified to describe it that way. As for the change, he promised that he had thought very hard about how it would be accomplished with me; and that he would do his utmost to ensure I felt as little pain as possible; but he could not guarantee that there would be nothing: my mortal body was dying after all. As for being able to sense and feel things the same way he laughed, not in a cruel way, because he knew that the world would be open to so many more intense experiences with preternatural senses than mere human ones. He assured me that I would still feel happiness and sorrow in the same way, and that the touch of his body would be as passionate as it had always been.

I probably asked a thousand other stupid questions, but he answered each one patiently, and after each answer he asked me if I was certain that this was what I wanted. Perhaps, in the beginning, I hesitated a few times with my responses, but my resolve grew stronger with each night that I spent with him, and I think he could sense that.

He still had to go out of town periodically, on business for the Authority, and it was on one of those nights that Pam asked to speak with me after work, and I waited at one of the tables as she locked everything up and sent the rest of the staff on their way. She sat down in front of me with a serious look on her face; a more serious look that was. I was a little worried about what she was going to say to me, but I had found so much confidence in the preceeding months that I did not show it in my face.

"Is it time Sookie?" She spoke, expecting that I would know exactly what she was referring to. I was proud of myself, because I did.

"I think so."

"You must be certain, this is not something you can take back."

"I know what I'm getting myself into Pam." A smile actually grazed her face.

"Yes Sookie," she nodded just slightly, "I believe you do."

"Thanks."

"I have to say, at the beginning I did not expect you to last this long. I believed that once you saw more and more of our world that you would come to your senses and back away. It is not easy being an outcast."

"I've got a lot of experience with that Pam."

"Very true."

"And I love Eric."

"I know, I can see it in your soul."

"Do you regret your choice Pam?"

"Not for an instant."

"Neither will I."

"Good. Then I'm glad we had this chat." She stood to leave.

"That's it?"

"You were expecting something else?" She looked down at me, still seated on the tall bar stool with her perfect eyebrows raised.

"I suppose I was expecting more of an inquisition." I offered.

"Sorry to disappoint. Do you want a ride home?" Business-like again.

"Yeah, that'd be good."

I guess that was the second deepest conversation I'd ever had with Pam.

When Eric phoned me that night he could tell right away that something was different with me, I knew inside that I'd found a peacefulness having said the words out loud to someone finally.

"When you come home Eric, we should talk about doing this." I said into my little phone camera. His eyes began to sparkle.

"You haven't any more questions?"

"Not important ones darling."

"Then I will make all the arrangements my lover."

"I love you Eric."

"I love you Sookie."

I felt almost electric when I clicked off the phone.


	36. Chapter 36

One more chapter? You tell me.

Merick

Chapter Thirty-Six

He told me very little about what was going to happen. I knew it was going to be that night, he'd given me that, and I had stayed up late to watch a last sunrise, and managed to last through for a final sunset. I think it was symbolic more than anything, it looked better on his HD TV anyways. I had a last human meal of pecan pie, and sweet potato casserole, washed down with a diet coke. I didn't feel like I had to say goodbye to anyone, because I was going to see them all again in a day or so. I have to admit, I did go to Bon Temps, just to talk to Gran again, and let her know what was going to happen, between the sunrise and sunset.

I was sitting out on the front steps of his house, in the dark, the last rays having disappeared behind the horizon a few minutes past when I heard the door open behind me, and sensed him there. He smiled at me, and held out his hand.

"The next evening you see will be with preternatural eyes, and it will be glorious my lover." I didn't know that much of anything could be more glorious than the site of him, loose fitting woven lounge pants, sitting just on his hips, bare-chested, white blonde hair, now grown long again, grazing his shoulders in the slight breeze leftover from the day. And don't get the impression that he looked like some kind of dumb Romance Novel cover, he was so much more than that.

I took his hand and he helped me stand, then he embraced me, inhaling my scent, perhaps the last of my human scent, and kissed my neck gently.

"I'm ready." I told him, loving to see the smile that lit his face. He led me back downstairs.

"If you change your mind," he began.

"I won't Eric."

"But if you do."

I nodded.

"Come." He pulled me into the bedroom. "Do you trust me?"

"With my life."

He laughed.

"Then let me have you."

He reached out to me and pulled the ponytail out of my hair. I didn't wear it that way much anymore, but I had thought I should, for Gran, just so she could see me that one last time, the way she remembered me. Long fingers combed out the strands till they fell across my neck, and down my back. I undid the buttons on my dress shirt, something else that was new to my wardrobe choices, and pulled the tails out from the waistband of my jeans. He slipped it off my arms and let it drop to the floor.

Bringing his hands to the sides of my face, he drew me towards him, and kissed me, meeting lips already parted, waiting the strength of his mouth. I wrapped my arms around his waist, and pushed my hips against him, feeling the beginnings of his arousal. Two hooks opened and fingers on the buttons of my jeans and I stood before him in nothing but the glow of the wall sconces. His eyes took in the sight of my body, as if he was trying to memorize the details of its human movement for the last time.

Strong arms swept me up and lay me down on our bed, and he came to hover over me, planting slow kisses over my eyes, my cheeks, and down my neck. Again, I expected the sting of his fangs but it did not come. The lips moved to my breasts, and then down to my belly, and insistent hands slid before them, gently parting my legs. It was hard not to cry out as he touched and tasted me with long strokes, twisting my insides into taut bundles even as I twined my fingers into his hair, pulling gently as he stole my senses. I could feel every emotion he was feeling, I could feel his own excitement building, the glow of his orgasm beginning to bud even as my own did, it was the closest we had ever been as human and vampire together: and he knew it as well. Only moments before I felt I would lose myself to his mouth and his hands he pulled his face away from me, and drove his rock hard member deeply into a body that was desperate for him. I lost myself in my climax letting the waves of it vibrate out to every fingertip and through my mind. But even with my own intensity I did still feel the bite in my neck, and the strong draw from his lips and happily, also the wash of joy across his mind, which was staggering.

His feeding from me was initially no different than it had always been, intense, accompanied by the teasing of his tongue across my skin, and the embrace of his body as he held me close to him. But what was different than before, was that it did not end in mere minutes, and also different, the wound to my neck was larger, not a simple puncture, but a tear, I could not guess how wide. He needed the blood to flow faster, the small bites clotted too quickly, he needed the artery and the pulse, and I felt his body begin to heave as he took greater and greater mouthfuls from me. And I felt myself begin to slip.

There was euphoria first, from the blood loss, and then the warm fogginess of feeling oneself ready to pass out, then a rush of accompanying panic, which was instinct more than anything else. I knew my heart was racing I felt the pounding in my chest as my body fought against its death. At the height of the terror I felt his hand grasp mine, and hold it tightly, I hesitate to say 'for dear life' because that would just be silly. That touch, that conscious action on his part helped to calm me, that and the fatigue, which was robbing me of my senses. But to know he was in control of what was happening to me, that he understood the fear and meant me to know that he was still there, it was everything to me right then. I did not feel pain really, but I saw my vision going dark as concentric black circles enclosed my field of view and my hearing became nothing but the echoing of my breathing, now labored, and my heartbeats.

"I love you Eric." I whispered, well, I think I whispered it. I didn't hear a response from him, I didn't hear anything, and then it was blackness and oblivion.

For me dying was easy. For Eric, as he recounted it to me, it was the hardest thing he'd ever done. He had loved Pam, but not in the same way as he loved me. If something had gone wrong, and the change had not come for me, he would have had to spend the rest of his days knowing that it was he who had ended my life. Pam's story was quite different; I have been led to believe. Personally, I have no memories from the moment of my human death until the warm, musty smell of earth assaulted my nostrils, and a heavy weight on my chest threw me into a panicked seizure of flailing arms and legs, held back by strength I remembered instinctually, and calmed by the sudden appearance of moonlight filtering through the soil.

"Sookie? Wake up for me my lover. Tell me that you are unharmed?" It was laced with concern, the voice I heard, but still held the force I remembered from so many days together.

I gasped for air out of sheer human need, and coughed the supposed dirt from my lungs, neither expression wholly necessary any longer. "Eric?" My voice however, was weak compared to his. I felt a blanket wrapped around my bare skin and tried to focus on the person doing it. If ever Eric had seemed to glow for me before, it was nothing compared to what I saw that night, in the moonlight. He was a god, and preternatural eyes brought in shadows and nuances of the light that I had never imagined possible.

"Sookie." Arms pulled me to his chest as he stood. I felt the rush of his body moving back towards the house, but unlike the previous trips at Vampire speed, I no longer felt the nausea that always forced me to close my eyes. In fact, I could see perfectly as he ran. We had been in the wooded ravine behind his house, and we had emerged from a deep burrow; no I don't want to call it a grave, thank you very much, where we had obviously spent the balance of the night and the following day.

"Did it work?" I whispered, almost afraid to hear the answer. He had taken me all the way back to the basement suite, I heard someone moving about upstairs, I didn't sense who, and saw the fireplace had been lit yet again.

"Look at me." He had set me down in front of the flames; I appreciated their warmth, not that I was cold though. I think I was in shock because I couldn't stop trembling. He took both my hands and held them tightly, which brought back the memory of the night before. I looked into his face and he parted his lips and dropped his fangs for me. For the first time I felt the snap of my own fangs dropping into place, in response to the sight of his. He beamed at me, the joy evident on his face, and then he kissed me, softly, barley pushing my own flesh against the new dentition.

"How do you feel?" He asked, looking into my eyes. I wondered what he was now seeing.

Despite the questions I had, I searched over my body with my mind, looking for discomfort, and pain and found only an emptiness in my gut. I looked at him quizzically.

"I'm okay I think."

'You are hungry.' I heard it, but not from his lips, from his mind, clear as if he had said it out loud.

'Yes.' I forced the thought across my mind while I looked into his blue eyes.

'As you should be.'

'How is this possible? Can you do this with Pam?' My state of concern grew, which didn't help the ache in my core.

'No. I can sense her presence, as my child, and her state of mind, as she can mine, but we have never held a conversation.' Funnily enough he did not look particularly bewildered by what was happening.

'Why then?'

'The Faerie blood perhaps? I don't know. But I am finding I enjoy it greatly.' He laughed, that was out loud. 'Now come, we will clean up and have someone to eat.'

He was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing if you ask me.


	37. Chapter 37

Okay, I couldn't just leave you without the Vampire sex.

It has been a great ride with Eric and Sookie here, thanks for taking it with me. What started as a one shot reaction to AB turned into thirty-seven chapters, seventy thousand words and hundreds of responses. I have loved and appreciated all your reviews and pm's and support. You are the best fans anywhere. There's another Eric and Sookie short on the way, and then maybe a little holiday break, but keep your eyes peeled for me, because I am an addict for all this, and I can't stay away for long.

Cheers!

Merick

Chapter Thirty-Seven

After assuring himself that I would be all right on my own for a few moments Eric excused himself to the washroom where I heard him begin running the water into the antique bathtub. To watch him move was a brand new experience for me, for so many reasons.

He moved away from me at superhuman speed, yet now I didn't see the blur of movement I had always seen before. Now I could watch him easily, staying focused on him the whole time, because now my eyes or my brain, could process the images enough that it seemed normal, yet I knew it wasn't. I looked back at the fireplace, and actually stared at the flames. They were different too. I mean I'd always seen the different sparks of color when I'd looked at fires before, but now, wow. I could see the blue flames light where they kissed the hardwood, and the morphing yellows and oranges as they pulled away from it, and the crowning white at the tip of the flames where they climbed up the flue. Even the transparent heat eddies took on a different life when I concentrated on them, and I could watch them swirl about, extending the height of the flames.

The smell of real wood fires had always been pleasant to me, but now there was so much more involved with the scent, it was complex, like those perfume ads try to tell you their products are, hints of this, and overtones of that. But now I understood it all. I was mesmerized.

I heard Eric returning, but I was fixated on the fire and everything else around me. There were the sounds of someone walking upstairs, a vibration of their energy, the scent of the clean water and the soap, which were all around Eric as I finally did turn back to him.

Apparently in the few moments he'd been gone he'd managed to have a shower himself, his hair was damp, and just starting to wave up around his shoulders. There were still beads of the water on his chest, running down the cuts of his muscles, and he was wearing absolutely nothing, I gasped. He laughed.

"Those human behaviors will gradually fade from your unconscious mind Sookie. But I hope the wonder of what you can see and feel now, never will."

Whoo Boy. I wanted to burn the sight of him into my mind for good. I tried to stand and just managed to wobble forward a bit. He caught me, and I fell against his skin, still warm from the water.

"Careful my lover." And he swept me up in his arms, the blanket falling away. I felt so secure there.

The bath water was wonderfully warm, and Eric was so attentive as he poured it over my hair and my body, helping me to wash the earth from my skin. His fingers danced over me, raising goose bumps and making me shudder even though I wasn't cold. I closed my eyes and sent my mind out, just to feel the emotions from each of us. What I felt from Eric would have made me blush, if I could even do that any longer. I raised my arms out of the water, and wrapped them around his neck, pulling myself towards him.

"I want you Eric." I felt the fangs snap back into place with the flush of my arousal.

"Then you will have me."

Feeling the strength in my muscles finally coming under my control, I stood, and still being in the tub, I was much closer to eye level with Eric than normal. That suited me just fine as I brought my mouth down over his neck, I felt him shudder and then I pushed the points of my teeth into his flesh.

The moan that escaped his lips was delicious to me, and he wrapped his hands around me more tightly with every draw I took of his blood, finally lifting me from the tub, holding me pressed against his body. I could feel the full length of his rock hard arousal and I wrapped my legs around his waist while I continued to suckle his neck. I felt the blood as much as I tasted it, coursing through my body, making me feel strong and alive, and as odd as that seems for a description, I had never felt more aware of everything around and within me.

He knew what I wanted from him, and I knew he wanted exactly the same thing, and in the few steps from the bathroom to the bed I kissed his neck, feeling the wound sealing beneath my lips, and then I took his mouth, sharing the blood on my tongue with him. Feeling his mind explode in the fireworks of his feral desire for me fueled my senses even further. I had hardly felt the pillowed duvet beneath my body when he forced himself inside me in a single stroke.

Making love with Eric had always been bliss, feeling his size and his strength, and his passions had brought me over the edge of ecstasy every time. But now, not only did I feel my own arousal building, but I could feel his, I could feel the sense behind every shudder, every indrawn, innate human left-over breath. Not only could I feel how he fit within my body, and the electricity of his shaft pushing against me, I could feel how the warmth and caresses of my own body over him began to pull out his own climax. I felt powerful knowing how much I actually pleased him, and knowing the truth behind every moan and cry.

It was his turn to seek out my body then, brushing his lips over my face, tracing down my neck, his fingers kneading at my flesh, bringing coincidental cries to us both. His thrusts building in intensity and frequency to beyond anything we could have accomplished with one of us still mortal. I arched my back to him, taking in every inch of him, presenting my breast to his hungry mouth as I did so. The sting of his teeth onto them brought me to my first of many climaxes for that night.

He pulled blood from me in a ravenous way, the sound of his feeding driving my senses mad. And even as he took my blood he came for me, flooding deep inside me in a wave of convulsions that drove me to rake my nails into his back to ensure that he was as close to me as he possibly could be in that moment. His roar, blood covered lips and widened blue black eyes pulled a feral cry from me that I would have never thought myself capable of, and our kiss, of blood and fangs and tangled bodies drove every thought from my mind but my absolute fulfillment.

We collapsed to the bed, a mess of sheets, passions and limbs, laughing, and seeking out each other's fingers and mouths till we had no energy left to spare.

There were a few hours left in the night, after we'd cleaned ourselves up for a second time, and we dressed and went down to Fangtasia. I just wore my normal 'going to Fangtasia' clothes, not my work stuff, but a nice dress, cut a bit low to show off the assets, kitten heels, and a lace wrap. Before we could leave though, Eric insisted on one other addition. He held out a jeweler's box to me. I took it, all the while looking at him a little sideways. I opened the lid and looked into the deep blue velvet lining. I was greeted with the sight of a necklace, a frosted, icy looking necklace with a charm on it, of a great tree, about the size of a silver dollar, though oblong.

Eric picked it out with his fingers, not silver obviously.

"Platinum." He told me as he looped it over my head, to fasten the clasp behind my neck as I held my hair out of the way for him. "It is Yggdrasil." The word rolled off his tongue with the full beauty of his Scandinavian accent. "It is the World Tree. It links the worlds of Asgard, Midgard and Nifheim, the realm of the Gods, the realm of the humans and the realm of the dead. It is the guardian of the worlds and represents life, death and resurrection. Do you like it?"

"Eric." I felt the stinging begin behind my eyes, "it's beautiful. I don't know what to say."

"Say you will not cry for me, and tell me that you love me Sookie." He dabbed at the tears, licking the blood from his fingertips.

"I do love you Eric. Thank you. Thank you for everything you've given me."

"It was all selfish you know." He said with a grin.

"Good. It's time for us both to be selfish for awhile."

"I do love you Sookie."

"I never doubted it Eric."

There was a line around the front of the club, but of course we drove straight around to the back and Eric unlocked the staff entrance so we could go inside. For a moment the crush of all the human minds assaulted me, but just as quickly I turned them off, instinctually, and that was a relief. So it seemed that I could still eavesdrop on humans despite the change. I mentioned it to Eric as we threaded our way along the back hallways. He was quite pleased that my talents had remained intact, and not because it made me a useful asset either, if that's what you were thinking. No, being able to see into his mind as well I knew that his happiness came from the fact that I was still myself. There had been a nagging guilt I had sensed, that he might have taken the gift from me, but that fear was calmed as I shared the news.

"Are you ready my lover?" He asked me as we approached the doorway beside his raised 'stage' at the far recesses of the club.

"I am darling." He pushed the door opened.

It was designed not to make a great show or anything, it led to the mystique of him magically appearing on the dais, seated on his throne, overseeing the proceedings of the evenings. Pam noticed us right away, and so did the new bartender, Joshua, who been hired about a month back. He stayed at his post, Pam crossed the room with her normal determined stride, her manolo's tapping against the hardwood floor. She had a twisted grin on her face because she could tell immediately what had happened, I imagined I didn't smell like a human any longer.

"Eric, Sookie, welcome."

"Pam." We both answered, almost simultaneously.

"Please tell me you both are not going to be wearing those smug, 'I'm in love' smiles for too long around here."

Eric laughed, I was horrified, I didn't think I looked that simple.

'She's joking.' I heard in my head.

"Things went well then I assume?"

"Perfectly." Eric brushed his hand along my hip and dropped his teeth, smiling.

I grinned at Pam, feeling a little proud of myself for some reason, maybe having survived the whole thing, and I let my fangs drop as well.

"Well thank goodness for that, maybe now I won't have to wake up to the smell of frying bacon any longer."

"Very funny Pam."

She looped arms with me and starting dragging me towards the bar.

"Come on little sister, let me get you a drink. Eric has some decent stuff behind the bar, none of that Tru Blood swill." I looked back at Eric.

'You have real blood here?'

'It's all legal; it's a specialty product, properly imported from Italy. You'll like it. I promise. None of the aftertaste of drunken humans.' He laughed out loud to Pam's curious stares at our silent conversation and retreated up to the 'throne' to take his place for the evening, for the humans to stare in wonder at, and offer themselves to, and generally give the place the dangerous feel that its patrons craved. I felt his eys follow me, as much as I felt every nasty little image he threw at me, of all the things we were going to do together now. Yes, things were going back to normal at Fangtasia. I sat at the bar; Joshua smiled at me and gave me a little nod of approval as he poured us both a drink from a dark, very old looking bottle with a parchment label.

I brought it to my lips, and sniffed it first. It was rich, with a hint of sweet spices and it felt warm as I drank it. Again the feeling of satisfaction coursed through me, not the same as the power I had felt from Eric's blood, he was over a thousand years old after all, but it was more than palatable, it was wonderful. I could get used to that kind of treat.

"You feel well little sister?"

"I do, big sister."

"It only gets better from here." She grinned, teeth glimmering against the mirrored lights and candles on the bar.

She was one hundred percent right.


End file.
